FOUR  YEARS 


ERMANY 


JAMES.  W.GERARD 


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SAFE    CONDUCT    FOR    AMBASSADOR    GERARD    AND    HIS    FAMILY,  TTNDER    THE    SIGNATURE    OF 
SECRET.UtY    ZIMMEUMAXN,    FEBRt'AKY    5,    1917 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


GIFT  OF 


Mrs.  Doris  E.  Lackey 


AMBASSADOR    GERARD    SAYING    GOOD-BYE    TO    THE    AMERICANS    LEAVING 
ON    A    SPECIAL   TRAIN.      AUGUST,    1914 


MY  FOUR  YEARS 
IN  GERMANY 

BY 

JAMES  W.  GERARD 

AMBASSADOR   TO  THE   GERMAN  IMPERIAL  COURT 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK 
GEORGE     H.    DORAN    COMPANY 


6V? 


COPYRIGHT,  1917, 
BT   GEORGE  H.  DORAN   COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1QT7,  BY  THE  PUBLIC   LEDGER  COMPANY 
POINTED    IN    THE    I'MTrD    STATES    OF    AMET'I(-\ 


TO  MY  SMALL  BUT  TACTFUL  FAMILY  OF  ONE 
MY    WIFE 


FOREWORD 

I  am  writing  what  should  have  been  the  last 
chapter  as  the  foreword  of  this  series  of  articles, 
because  I  want  to  bring  home  to  our  people  the 
gravity  of  the  situation;  because  I  want  to  tell 
them  that  the  military  and  naval  power  of  the 
German  Empire  is  unbroken ;  that  of  the  twelve 
million  men  whom  the  Kaiser  has  called  to  the 
colours  but  one  million,  five  hundred  thousand 
have  been  killed,  five  hundred  thousand  perma- 
nently disabled,  not  more  than  five  hundred  thou- 
sand are  prisoners  of  war,  and  about  five  hun- 
dred thousand  constitute  the  number  of  wounded 
or  those  on  the  sick  list  of  each  day,  leaving  at  all 
times  about  nine  million  effectives  under  arms. 

I  state  these  figures  because  Americans  do  not 
grasp  either  the  magnitude  or  the  importance  of 
this  war.  Perhaps  the  statement  that  over  five 
million  prisoners  of  war  are  held  in  the  various 
countries  will  bring  home  to  Americans  the  enor- 
mous mass  of  men  engaged. 

There  have  been  no  great  losses  in  the  German 
navy,  and  any  losses  of  ships  have  been  compen- 
sated for  by  the  building  of  new  ones.  The  nine 

vii 


FOREWORD 

million  men,  and  more,  for  at  least  four  hundred 
thousand  come  of  military  age  in  Germany  every 
year,  because  of  their  experience  in  two  and  a 
half  years  of  war  are  better  and  more  efficient 
soldiers  than  at  the  time  when  they  were  called 
to  the  colours.  Their  officers  know  far  more  of 
the  science  of  this  war  and  the  men  themselves 
now  have  the  skill  and  bearing  of  veterans. 

Nor  should  any  one  believe  that  Germany  will 
break  under  starvation  or  make  peace  because  of 
revolution. 

The  German  nation  is  not  one  which  makes 
revolutions.  There  will  be  scattered  riots  in 
Germany,  but  no  simultaneous  rising  of  the 
whole  people.  The  officers  of  the  army  are  all  of 
one  class,  and  of  a  class  devoted  to  the  ideals  of 
autocracy.  A  revolution  of  the  army  is  impos- 
sible; and  at  home  there  are  only  the  boys  and 
old  men  easily  kept  in  subjection  by  the  police. 

There  is  far  greater  danger  of  the  starvation 
of  our  Allies  than  of  the  starvation  of  the  Ger- 
mans. Every  available  inch  of  ground  in  Ger- 
many is  cultivated,  and  cultivated  by  the  aid  of 
the  old  men,  the  boys  and  the  women,  and  the 
two  million  prisoners  of  war. 

The  arable  lands  of  Northern  France  and  of 
Roumania  are  being  cultivated  by  the  German 
army  with  an  efficiency  never  before  known  in 
these  countries,  and  most  of  that  food  will  be 

viii 


FOREWORD 

added  to  the  food  supplies  of  Germany.  Cer- 
tainly the  people  suffer;  but  still  more  certainly 
this  war  will  not  be  ended  because  of  the  starva- 
tion of  Germany. 

Although  thinking  Germans  know  that  if  they 
do  not  win  the  war  the  financial  day  of  reckon- 
ing will  come,  nevertheless,  owing  to  the  clever 
financial  handling  of  the  country  by  the  govern- 
ment and  the  great  banks,  there  is  at  present  no 
financial  distress  in  Germany ;  and  the  knowledge 
that,  unless  indemnities  are  obtained  from  other 
countries,  the  weight  of  the  great  war  debt  will 
fall  upon  the  people,  perhaps  makes  them  readier 
to  risk  all  in  a  final  attempt  to  win  the  war  and 
impose  indemnities  upon  not  only  the  nations  of 
Europe  but  also  upon  the  United  States  of 
America. 

We  are  engaged  in  a  war  against  the 
greatest  military  power  the  world  has  ever  seen ; 
against  a  people  whose  country  was  for  so  many 
centuries  a  theatre  of  devastating  wars  that  fear 
is  bred  in  the  very  marrow  of  their  souls,  mak- 
ing them  ready  to  submit  their  lives  and  fortunes 
to  an  autocracy  which  for  centuries  has  ground 
their  faces,  but  which  has  promised  them,  as  a 
result  of  the  war,  not  only  security  but  riches 
untold  and  the  dominion  of  the  world;  a  people 
which,  as  from  a  high  mountain,  has  looked  upon 
the  cities  of  the  world  and  the  glories  of  them, 

ix 


FOREWORD 

and  has  been  promised  these  cities  and  these 
glories  by  the  devils  of  autocracy  and  of  war. 

We  are  warring  against  a  nation  whose  poets 
and  professors,  whose  pedagogues  and  whose 
parsons  have  united  in  stirring  its  people  to  a 
white  pitch  of  hatred,  first  against  Russia,  then 
against  England  and  now  against  America. 

The  U-Boat  peril  is  a  very  real  one  for  Eng- 
land. Russia  may  either  break  up  into  civil  wars 
or  become  so  ineffective  that  the  millions  of  Ger- 
man troops  engaged  on  the  Russian  front  may 
be  withdrawn  and  hurled  against  the  Western 
lines.  We  stand  in  great  peril,  and  only  the  ex- 
ercise of  ruthless  realism  can  win  this  war  for 
us.  If  Germany  wins  this  war  it  means  the  tri- 
umph of  the  autocratic  system.  It  means  the 
triumph  of  those  who  believe  not  only  in  war  as 
a  national  industry,  not  only  in  war  for  itself  but 
also  in  war  as  a  high  and  noble  occupation.  Un- 
less Germany  is  beaten  the  whole  world  will  be 
compelled  to  turn  itself  into  an  armed  camp,  until 
the  German  autocracy  either  brings  every  nation 
under  its  dominion  or  is  forever  wiped  out  as  a 
form  of  government. 

We  are  in  this  war  because  we  were  forced 
into  it :  because  Germany  not  only  murdered  our 
citizens  on  the  high  seas,  but  also  filled  our  coun- 
try with  spies  and  sought  to  incite  our  people  to 
civil  war.  We  were  given  no  opportunity  to  dis- 


FOREWORD 

cuss  or  negotiate.  The  forty-eight  hour  ultima- 
tum given  by  Austria  to  Serbia  was  not,  as  Ber- 
nard Shaw  said,  "A  decent  time  in  which  to  ask 
a  man  to  pay  his  hotel  bill."  What  of  the  six- 
hour  ultimatum  given  to  me  in  Berlin  on  the 
evening  of  January  thirty-first,  1917,  when  I  was 
notified  at  six  that  ruthless  warfare  would  com- 
mence at  twelve?  Why  the  German  government, 
which  up  to  that  moment  had  professed  amity 
and  a  desire  to  stand  by  the  Sussex  pledges, 
knew  that  it  took  almost  two  days  to  send  a  cable 
to  America!  I  believe  that  we  are  not  only 
justly  in  this  war,  but  prudently  in  this  war.  If 
we  had  stayed  out  and  the  war  had  been  drawn 
or  won  by  Germany  we  should  have  been  at- 
tacked, and  that  while  Europe  stood  grinning 
by :  not  directly  at  first,  but  through  an  attack  on 
some  Central  or  South  American  State  to  which 
it  would  be  at  least  as  difficult  for  us  to  send 
troops  as  for  Germany.  And  what  if  this  power- 
ful nation,  vowed  to  war,  were  once  firmly  estab- 
lised  in  South  or  Central  America?  What  of 
our  boasted  isolation  then? 

It  is  only  because  I  believe  that  our  people 
should  be  informed  that  I  have  consented  to 
write  this  book.  There  are  too  many  thinkers, 
writers  and  speakers  in  the  United  States ;  from 
now  on  we  need  the  doers,  the  organisers,  and 

xi 


FOREWORD 

the  realists  who  alone  can  win  this  contest  for 
us,  for  democracy  and  for  permanent  peace! 

Writing  of  events  so  new,  I  am,  of  course, 
compelled  to  exercise  a  great  discretion,  to  keep 
silent  on  many  things  of  which  I  would  speak, 
to  suspend  many  judgments  and  to  hold  for  fu- 
ture disclosure  many  things,  the  relation  of 
which  now  would  perhaps  only  serve  to  increase 
bitterness  or  to  cause  internal  dissension  in  our 
own  land. 

The  American  who  travels  through  Germany 
in  summer  time  or  who  spends  a  month  having 
his  liver  tickled  at  Homburg  or  Carlsbad,  who 
has  his  digestion  restored  by  Dr.  Dapper  at  Kis- 
singen  or  who  relearns  the  lost  art  of  eating 
meat  at  Dr.  Dengler's  in  Baden,  learns  little  of 
the  real  Germany  and  its  rulers;  and  in  this 
book  I  tell  something  of  the  real  Germany,  not 
only  that  my  readers  may  understand  the  events 
of  the  last  three  years  but  also  that  they  may 
judge  of  what  is  likely  to  happen  in  our  future 
relations  with  that  country. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


FOREWORD v 

CHAPTER 

I     MY  FIRST  YEAR  IN  GERMANY     .  17 

II     POLITICAL  AND  GEOGRAPHICAL     .     .  40 

III  DIPLOMATIC  WORK  OF  FIRST  WINTER 

IN  BERLIN 58 

IV  MILITARISM  IN  GERMANY  AND  THE 

ZABERN  AFFAIR 75 

V     PSYCHOLOGY  AND  CAUSES  WHICH  PRE- 
PARED THE  NATION  FOR  WAR   .     .  92 

VI     AT  KIEL  JUST  BEFORE  THE  WAR       .  104 

VII     THE  SYSTEM 1 1 1 

VIII     THE  DAYS  BEFORE  THE  WAR       .     .  129 

IX     THE  AMERICANS  AT  THE  OUTBREAK 

OF  HOSTILITIES 143 

X     PRISONERS  OF  WAR 155 

XI     FIRST  DAYS  OF  THE  WAR:  POLITICAL 

AND  DIPLOMATIC 198 

XII     DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS     .     .     .  217 

XIII     MAINLY  COMMERCIAL 262 

xiii 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  FAGB 

XIV    WORK  FOR  THE  GERMANS  ....  286 

XV     WAR  CHARITIES 291 

XVI     HATE 306 

XVII     DIPLOMATIC    NEGOTIATIONS.     (Con- 
tinued)        324 

XVIII     LIBERALS  AND  REASONABLE  MEN  .     .  388 

XIX    THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  IN  WAR     .     .  403 

XX    LAST 429 


I1T 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

AMBASSADOR  GERARD  SAYING  GOOD-BYE  TO  THE 
AMERICANS  LEAVING  ON  A  SPECIAL  TRAIN, 
AUGUST,  1914 Frontispiece 

PAGE 

AMBASSADOR  GERARD  ON  His  WAY  TO  PRESENT 
His  LETTERS  OF  CREDENCE  TO  THE  EMPEROR  20 

THE  HOUSE  RENTED  FOR  USE  AS  EMBASSY     .       20 

A  SALON  IN  THE  EMBASSY 30 

THE  BALL-ROOM  OF  THE  EMBASSY   ....      30 

PROGRAMME  OF  THE  Music  AFTER  DINNER  AT 
THE  ROYAL  PALACE 62 

THE  ROYAL  PALACE  AT  POTSDAM     ....       84 

DEMONSTRATION  OF  SYMPATHY  FOR  THE" AMERI- 
CANS AT  THE  TOWN  HALL,  AUGUST,  1914  .  84 

RACING  YACHTS  AT  KIEL 106 

THE  KAISER'S  YACHT,  "  HOHENZOLLERN  "  .     .     106 

AMBASSADOR  GERARD  ON  His  WAY  TO  His 
SHOOTING  PRESERVE 120 

A  KEEPER  AND  BEATERS  ON  THE  SHOOTING 
PRESERVE 120 

CROWDS  N  FRONT  OF  THE  EMBASSY,  AUGUST, 
i9H 136 

OUTSIDE  THE  EMBASSY  IN  THE  EARLY  DAYS  OF 
THE  WAR 136 

AT  WORK  IN  THE  EMBASSY  BALL-ROOM,  AU- 
GUST, 1914 148 

XV 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


AMBASSADOR  GERARD  AND  His  STAFF  .     .     .     148 
COVER  OF  THE  RUHLEBEN  MONTHLY    .     .  1 68 

SPECIMEN  PAGE  OF  DRAWINGS  FROM  THE 
RUHLEBEN  MONTHLY 188 

ALLEGED  DUM-DUM  BULLETS 204 

THE  "LUSITANIA"  MEDAL 238 

PAGE  FROM  "  FOR  LIGHT  AND  TRUTH  "  .     .     .  308 

AMBASSADOR  GERARD  AND  PARTY  IN  SEDAN    .  328 

IN  FRONT  OF  THE  COTTAGE  AT  BAZEILLES  .     .  328 

FOOD  ALLOTMENT  POSTER  FROM  THE  CHARLE- 
VILLE  DISTRICT 368 

FAC-SIMILE  REPRODUCTION  OF  THE  KAISER'S 
PERSONAL  TELEGRAM  TO  PRESIDENT  WILSON 

433-438 

FAC-SIMILE  OF  SECRETARY  OF  STATE'S  REQUEST 
TO  AMBASSADOR  GERARD  TO  CALL  IN  ORDER 
TO  RECEIVE  SUBMARINE  ANNOUNCEMENT  .  39 

THE  REMODELLED  DRAFT  OF  THE  TREATY  OF 
1799  .  .  440-441 

INSTRUCTIONS  SENT  TO  THE  GERMAN  PRESS  ON 
WRITING  UP  A  ZEPPELIN  RAID  .  .  .  442-443 

PETITION  CIRCULATED  FOR  SIGNATURE  AMONG 
AMERICANS  IN  EUROPE 444 

PAGE  FROM  LISSAUER'S  PAMPHLET  SHOWING 
"HYMN  OF  HATE" 445 

INSTRUCTIONS  REGULATING  APPEARANCE  AT 
COURT 446-447 

A  BERLIN  EXTRA 448 


xvi 


MY    FOUR   YEARS   IN 
GERMANY 

CHAPTER  I 

MY  FIRST  YEAR  IN  GERMANY 

THE  second  day  out  on  the  Imperator,  headed 
for  a  summer's  vacation,  a  loud  knocking 
woke  me  at  seven  A.  M.  The  radio,  handed  in 
from  a  friend  in  New  York,  told  me  of  my  ap- 
pointment as  Ambassador  to  Germany. 

Many  friends  were  on  the  ship.  Henry  Mor- 
genthau,  later  Ambassador  to  Turkey,  Colonel 
George  Harvey,  Adolph  Ochs  and  Louis  Wiley 
of  the  New  York  Times,  Clarence  Mackay,  and 
others. 

The  Imperator  is  a  marvellous  ship  of  fifty- 
four  thousand  tons  or  more,  and  at  times  it  is 
hard  to  believe  that  one  is  on  the  sea.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  regular  dining  saloon,  there  is  a  grill 
room  and  Ritz  restaurant  with  its  palm  garden, 
and,  of  course,  an  Hungarian  Band.  There  are 
also  a  gymnasium  and  swimming  pool,  and, 
nightly,  in  the  enormous  ballroom  dances  are 

17 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

given,  the  women  dressing  in  their  best  just  as 
they  do  on  shore. 

Colonel  Harvey  and  Clarence  Mackay  gave 
me  a  dinner  of  twenty-four  covers,  something  of 
a  record  at  sea.  For  long  afterwards  in  Ger- 
many, I  saw  everywhere  pictures  of  the  Impera- 
tor  including  one  of  the  tables  set  for  this  dinner. 
These  were  sent  out  over  Germany  as  a  sort  of 
propaganda  to  induce  the  Germans  to  patronise 
their  own  ships  and  indulge  in  ocean  travel.  I 
wish  that  the  propaganda  had  been  earlier  and 
more  successful,  because  it  is  by  travel  that  peo- 
ples learn  to  know  each  other,  and  consequently 
to  abstain  from  war. 

On  the  night  of  the  usual  ship  concert,  Henry 
Morgenthau  translated  a  little  speech  for  me  into 
German,  which  I  managed  to  get  through  after 
painfully  learning  it  by  heart.  Now  that  I  have 
a  better  knowledge  of  German,  a  cold  sweat 
breaks  out  when  I  think  of  the  awful  German 
accent  with  which  I  delivered  that  address. 

A  flying  trip  to  Berlin  early  in  August  to  look 
into  the  house  question  followed,  and  then  I  re- 
turned to  the  United  States. 

In  September  I  went  to  Washington  to  be  "in- 
structed," talked  with  the  President  and  Secre- 
tary, and  sat  at  the  feet  of  the  Assistant  Secre- 
tary of  State,  Alvey  A.  Adee,  the  revered  Sage 
of  the  Department  of  State. 

18 


MY  FIRST  YEAR  IN  GERMANY 

On  September  ninth,  1913,  having  resigned  as 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  I  sailed  for  Germany,  stopping  on 
the  way  in  London  in  order  to  make  the  ac- 
quaintance of  Ambassador  Page,  certain  wise 
people  in  Washington  having  expressed  the  be- 
lief that  a  personal  acquaintance  of  our  Ambas- 
sadors made  it  easier  for  them  to  work  together. 

Two  cares  assail  a  newly  appointed  Ambassa- 
dor. He  must  first  take  thought  of  what  he  shall 
wear  and  where  he  shall  live.  All  other  nations 
have  beautiful  Embassies  or  Legations  in  Ber- 
lin, but  I  found  that  my  two  immediate  prede- 
cessors had  occupied  a  villa  originally  built  as 
a  two-family  house,  pleasantly  enough  situated, 
but  two  miles  from  the  centre  of  Berlin  and 
entirely  unsuitable  for  an  Embassy. 

There  are  few  private  houses  in  Berlin,  most 
of  the  people  living  in  apartments.  After  some 
trouble  I  found  a  handsome  house  on  the  Wil- 
helm  Platz  immediately  opposite  the  Chancellor's 
palace  and  the  Foreign  Office,  in  the  very  centre 
of  Berlin.  This  house  had  been  built  as  a  palace 
for  the  Princes  Hatzfeld  and  had  later  passed 
into  the  possession  of  a  banking  family  named 
von  Schwabach. 

The  United  States  Government,  unlike  other 
nations,  does  not  own  or  pay  the  rent  of  a  suit- 
able Embassy,  but  gives  allowance  for  offices,  if 

IQ 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

the  house  is  large  enough  to  afford  office  room 
for  the  office  force  of  the  Embassy.  The  von 
Schwabach  palace  was  nothing  but  a  shell.  Even 
the  gas  and  electric  light  fixtures  had  been  re- 
moved; and  when  the  hot  water  and  heating 
system,  bath-rooms,  electric  lights  and  fixtures, 
etc.,  had  been  put  in,  and  the  house  furnished 
from  top  to  bottom,  my  first  year's  salary  had 
far  passed  the  minus  point. 

The  palace  was  not  ready  for  occupancy  until 
the  end  of  January,  1914,  and,  in  the  meantime, 
we  lived  at  the  Hotel  Esplanade,  and  I  transacted 
business  at  the  old,  two-family  villa. 

There  are  more  diplomats  in  Berlin  than  in 
any  other  capital  in  the  world,  because  each  of 
the  twenty-five  States  constituting  the  German 
Empire  sends  a  legation  to  Berlin ;  even  the  free 
cities  of  Hamburg,  Liibeck  and  Bremen  have  a 
resident  minister  at  the  Empire's  capital. 

Invariable  custom  requires  a  new  Ambassador 
in  Berlin  to  give  two  receptions,  one  to  the  Dip- 
lomatic Corps  and  the  other  to  all  those  people 
who  have  the  right  to  go  to  court.  These  are 
the  officials,  nobles  and  officers  of  the  army  and 
navy,  and  such  other  persons  as  have  been  pre- 
sented at  court.  Such  people  are  called  hoff'dhig, 
meaning  that  they  are  fit  for  court 

It  is  interesting  here  to  note  that  Jews  are  not 
admitted  to  court.  Such  Jews  as  have  been  en- 

20 


AMBASSADOR   GERARD   ON    HIS    WAY   TO   PRESENT   HIS   LETTERS   OF 
CREDENCE   TO   THE  EMPEROR 


THE   HOUSE  ON   THE    WILHELM    PLATZ,   RENTED   FOR   USE   AS   THE   EMBASSY 


MY  FIRST  YEAR  IN  GERMANY 

nobled  and  allowed  to  put  the  coveted  "von"  be- 
fore their  names  have  first  of  all  been  required 
to  submit  to  baptism  in  some  Christian  church. 
Examples  are  the  von  Schwabach  family,  whose 
ancestral  house  I  occupied  in  Berlin,  and  Fried- 
laender-Fuld,  officially  rated  as  the  richest  man  in 
Berlin,  who  made  a  large  fortune  in  coke  and 
its  by-products. 

These  two  receptions  are  really  introductions 
of  an  Ambassador  to  official  and  court  society. 

Before  these  receptions,  however,  and  in  the 
month  of  November,  I  presented  my  letters  of 
credence  as  Ambassador  to  the  Emperor.  This 
presentation  is  quite  a  ceremony.  Three  coaches 
were  sent  for  me  and  my  staff,  coaches  like  that 
in  which  Cinderella  goes  to  her  ball,  mostly  glass, 
with  white  wigged  coachmen,  outriders  in  white 
wigs  and  standing  footmen  holding  on  to  the 
back  part  of  the  coach.  Baron  von  Roeder,  in- 
troducer of  Ambassadors,  came  for  me  and  ac- 
companied me  in  the  first  coach;  the  men  of  the 
Embassy  staff  sat  in  the  other  two  coaches.  Our 
little  procession  progressed  solemnly  through  the 
streets  of  Berlin,  passing  on  the  way  through 
the  centre  division  of  the  arch  known  as  the 
Brandenberger  Thor,  the  gateway  that  stands 
at  the  head  of  the  Unter  den  Linden,  a  privilege 
given  only  on  this  occasion. 

We  mounted  long  stairs  in  the  palace,  and  in 

21 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

a  large  room  were  received  by  the  aides  and  the 
officers  of  the  Emperor's  household,  of  course  all 
in  uniform.  Then  I  was  ushered  alone  into  the 
adjoining  room  where  the  Emperor,  very  erect 
and  dressed  in  the  black  uniform  of  the  Death's- 
Head  Hussars,  stood  by  a  table.  I  made  him  a 
little  speech,  and  presented  my  letters  of  cre- 
dence and  the  letters  of  recall  of  my  predecessor. 
The  Emperor  then  unbent  from  his  very  erect 
and  impressive  attitude  and  talked  with  me  in 
a  very  friendly  manner,  especially  impressing 
me  with  his  interest  in  business  and  commercial 
affairs.  I  then,  in  accordance  with  custom,  asked 
leave  to  present  my  staff.  The  doors  were 
opened.  The  staff  came  in,  were  presented  to 
the  Emperor,  who  talked  in  a  very  jolly  and 
agreeable  way  to  all  of  us,  saying  that  he  hoped 
above  all  to  see  the  whole  of  the  Embassy  staff 
riding  in  the  Tier  Garten  in  the  mornings. 

The  Emperor  is  a  most  impressive  figure,  and, 
in  his  black  uniform  surrounded  by  his  officers, 
certainly  looked  every  inch  a  king.  Although 
my  predecessors,  on  occasions  of  this  kind,  had 
worn  a  sort  of  fancy  diplomatic  uniform  de- 
signed by  themselves,  I  decided  to  abandon  this 
and  return  to  the  democratic,  if  unattractive  and 
uncomfortable,  dress-suit,  simply  because  the 
newspapers  of  America  and  certain  congress- 
men, while  they  have  had  no  objection  to  the 

22 


MY  FIRST  YEAR  IN  GERMANY 

wearing  of  uniforms  by  the  army  and  navy, 
police  and  postmen,  and  do  not  expect  officers  to 
lead  their  troops  into  battle  in  dress-suits,  have, 
nevertheless,  had  a  most  extraordinary  prejudice 
against  American  diplomats  following  the  usual 
custom  of  adopting  a  diplomatic  uniform. 

Some  days  after  my  presentation  to  the  Em- 
peror, I  was  taken  to  Potsdam,  which  is  situated 
about  half  an  hour's  train  journey  from  Berlin, 
and,  from  the  station  there,  driven  to  the  new 
palace  and  presented  to  the  Empress.  The 
Empress  was  most  charming  and  affable,  and 
presented  a  very  distinguished  appearance. 
Accompanied  by  Mrs.  Gerard,  and  always,  either 
by  night  or  by  day,  in  the  infernal  dress-suit,  I 
was  received  by  the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess, 
and  others  of  the  royal  princes  and  their  wives. 
On  these  occasions  we  sat  down  and  did  not 
stand,  as  when  received  by  the  Emperor  and 
Empress,  and  simply  made  "polite  conversation" 
for  about  twenty  minutes,  being  received  first  by 
the  ladies-in-waiting  and  aides.  These  princes 
were  always  in  uniform  of  some  kind. 

At  the  reception  for  the  hoffdhig  people 
Mrs.  Gerard  stood  in  one  room  and  I  in  another, 
and  with  each  of  us  was  a  representative  of  the 
Emperor's  household  to  introduce  the  people  of 
the  court,  and  an  army  officer  to  introduce  the 
people  of  the  army.  The  officer  assigned  to  me 

23 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IX  GERMANY 

had  the  extraordinary  name  of  der  Pfortner  von 
der  Hoelle,  which  means  the  "porter  of  Hell."  I 
have  often  wondered  since  by  what  prophetic  in- 
stinct he  was  sent  to  introduce  me  to  the  two 
years  and  a  half  of  world  war  which  I  experi- 
enced in  Berlin.  This  unfortunate  officer,  a  most 
charming  gentleman,  was  killed  early  in  the  war. 

The  Berlin  season  lasts  from  about  the  twen- 
tieth of  January  for  about  six  weeks.  It  is  short 
in  duration  because,  if  the  hoffdhig  people 
stay  longer  than  six  weeks  in  Berlin,  they  become 
liable  to  pay  their  local  income  tax  in  Berlin, 
where  the  rate  is  higher  than  in  those  parts  of 
Germany  where  they  have  their  country  estates. 

The  first  great  court  ceremonial  is  the  Schlep- 
pencour,  so-called  from  the  long  trains  or 
Schleppen  worn  by  the  women.  On  this  night  we 
"presented"  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robert  K.  Cassatt  of 
Philadelphia,  Mrs.  Ernest  Wiltsee,  Mrs.  and 
Miss  Luce  and  Mrs.  Norman  Whitehouse.  On 
the  arrival  at  the  palace  with  these  and  all  the 
members  of  the  Embassy  Staff  and  their  wives, 
we  were  shown  up  a  long  stair-case,  at  the  top 
of  which  a  guard  of  honour,  dressed  in  costume 
of  the  time  of  Frederick  the  Great,  presented 
arms  to  all  Ambassadors,  and  ruffled  kettle- 
drums. Through  long  lines  of  cadets  from  the 
military  schools,  dressed  as  pages,  in  white,  with 
short  breeches  and  powdered  wigs,  we  passed 

24 


MY  FIRST  YEAR  IN  GERMANY 

through  several  rooms  where  all  the  people  to 
pass  in  review  were  gathered.  Behind  these,  in 
a  room  about  sixty  feet  by  fifty,  on  a  throne  fac- 
ing the  door  were  the  Emperor  and  Empress,  and 
on  the  broad  steps  of  this  throne  were  the  princes 
and  their  wives,  the  court  ladies-in-waiting  and 
all  the  other  members  of  the  court.  The  wives 
of  the  Ambassadors  entered  the  room  first,  fol- 
lowed at  intervals  of  about  twenty  feet  by  the 
ladies  of  the  Embassy  and  the  ladies  to  be  pre- 
sented. As  they  entered  the  room  and  made  a 
change  of  direction  toward  the  throne,  pages  in 
white  straightened  out  the  ladies'  trains  with 
long  sticks.  Arrived  opposite  the  throne  and 
about  twenty  feet  from  it,  each  Ambassador's 
wife  made  a  low  curtsey  and  then  stood  on  the 
foot  of  the  throne,  to  the  left  of  the  Emperor  and 
Empress,  and  as  each  lady  of  the  Embassy,  not 
before  presented,  and  each  lady  to  be  presented 
stopped  beside  the  throne  and  made  a  low  curt- 
sey, the  Ambassadress  had  to  call  out  the  name 
of  each  one  in  a  loud  voice ;  and  when  the  last  one 
had  passed  she  followed  her  out  of  the  room, 
walking  sideways  so  as  not  to  turn  her  back  on 
the  royalties, — something  of  a  feat  when  towing 
a  train  about  fifteen  feet  long.  When  all  the 
Ambassadresses  had  so  passed,  it  was  the  turn 
of  the  Ambassadors,  who  carried  out  substan- 
tially the  same  programme,  substituting  low  bows 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

for  curtsies.  The  Ambassadors  were  followed 
by  the  Ministers'  wives,  these  by  the  Ministers 
and  these  by  the  dignitaries  of  the  German 
Court.  All  passed  into  the  adjoining  hall,  and 
there  a  buffet  supper  was  served.  The  whole  af- 
fair began  at  about  eight  o'clock  and  was  over 
in  an  hour. 

At  the  court  balls,  which  also  began  early  in 
the  evening,  a  different  procedure  was  followed. 
There  the  guests  were  required  to  assemble  be- 
fore eight-twenty  in  the  ball-room.  As  in  the 
Schleppencour,  on  one  side  of  the  room  was  the 
throne  with  seats  for  the  Emperor  and  Empress, 
and  to  the  right  of  this  throne  were  the  chairs 
for  the  Ambassadors'  wives  who  were  seated  in 
the  order  of  their  husbands'  rank,  with  the  ladies 
of  their  Embassy,  and  any  ladies  they  had 
brought  to  the  ball  standing  behind  them.  After 
them  came  the  Ministers'  wives,  sitting  in  similar 
fashion;  then  the  Ambassadors,  standing  with 
their  staffs  behind  them  on  raised  steps,  with  any 
men  that  they  had  asked  invitations  for,  and  the 
Ministers  in  similar  order.  To  the  left  of  the 
throne  stood  the  wives  of  the  Dukes  and  digni- 
taries of  Germany  and  then  their  husbands. 
When  all  were  assembled,  promptly  at  the  time 
announced,  the  orchestra,  which  was  dressed  in 
mediaeval  costume  and  sat  in  a  gallery,  sounded 
trumpets  and  then  the  Emperor  and  Empress 

26 


MY  FIRST  YEAR  IN  GERMANY 

entered  the  room,  the  Emperor,  of  course,  in 
uniform,  followed  by  the  ladies  and  gentlemen 
of  the  household  all  in  brilliant  uniforms,  and 
one  or  two  officers  of  the  court  regiment,  picked 
out  for  their  great  height  and  dressed  in  the 
kind  of  uniform  Rupert  of  Hentzau  wears  on 
the  stage, — a  silver  helmet  surmounted  by  an 
eagle,  a  steel  breast-plate,  white  breeches  and 
coat,  and  enormous  high  boots  coming  half  way 
up  the  thigh.  The  Grand  Huntsman  wore  a 
white  wig,  three-cornered  hat  and  a  long  green 
coat. 

On  entering  the  room,  the  Empress  usually 
commenced  on  one  side  and  the  Emperor  on 
the  other,  going  around  the  room  and  speaking 
to  the  Ambassadors'  wives  and  Ambassadors, 
etc.,  in  turn,  and  the  Empress  in  similar  fashion, 
chatting  for  a  moment  with  the  German  digni- 
taries and  their  wives  lined  up  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  room.  After  going  perhaps  half  way 
around  each  side,  the  Emperor  and  Empress 
would  then  change  sides.  This  going  around  the 
room  and  chatting  with  people  in  turn  is  called 
"making  the  circle",  and  young  royalties  are 
practised  in  "making  the  circle"  by  being  made 
to  go  up  to  the  trees  in  a  garden  and  address  a 
few  pleasant  words  to  each  tree,  in  this  man- 
ner learning  one  of  the  principal  duties  of  roy- 
alty. 

27 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

The  dancing  is  only  by  young  women  and 
young  officers  of  noble  families  who  have  prac- 
tised the  dances  before.  They  are  under  the 
superintendence  of  several  young  officers  who  are 
known  as  Vortanzer  and  when  any  one  in 
Berlin  in  court  society  gives  a  ball  these  Vor- 
tanzer are  the  ones  who  see  that  all  dancing 
is  conducted  strictly  according  to  rule  and  man- 
age the  affairs  o£  the  ball-room  with  true  Prus- 
sian efficiency.  Supper  is  about  ten-thirty  at 
a  court  ball  and  is  at  small  tables.  Each  royalty 
has  a  table  holding  about  eight  people  and  to 
these  people  are  invited  without  particular  rule 
as  to  precedence.  The  younger  guests  and  lower 
dignitaries  are  not  placed  at  supper  but  find 
places  at  tables  to  suit  themselves.  After  sup- 
per all  go  back  to  the  ball-room  and  there  the 
young  ladies  and  officers,  led  by  the  Vortanzer, 
execute  a  sort  of  lancers,  in  the  final  figure  of 
which  long  lines  are  formed  of  dancers  radiating 
from  the  throne;  and  all  the  dancers  make  bows 
and  curtsies  to  the  Emperor  and  Empress  who 
are  either  standing  or  sitting  at  this  time  on  the 
throne.  At  about  eleven-thirty  the  ball  is  over, 
and  as  the  guests  pass  out  through  the  long  hall, 
they  are  given  glasses  of  hot  punch  and  a  pe- 
culiar sort  of  local  Berlin  bun,  in  order  to  ward 
off  the  lurking  dangers  of  the  villainous  winter 
climate. 

28 


MY  FIRST  YEAR  IN  GERMANY 

At  the  court  balls  the  diplomats  are,  of  course, 
in  their  best  diplomatic  uniform.  All  Germans 
are  in  uniform  of  some  kind,  but  the  women  do 
not  wear  the  long  trains  worn  at  the  Schleppen- 
cour.  They  wear  ordinary  ball  dresses.  In  con- 
nection with  court  dancing  it  is  rather  interest- 
ing to  note  that  when  the  tango  and  turkey 
trot  made  their  way  over  the  frontiers  of  Ger- 
many in  the  autumn  of  1913,  the  Emperor  issued 
a  special  order  that  no  officers  of  the  army  or 
navy  should  dance  any  of  these  dances  or  should 
go  to  the  house  of  any  person  who,  at  any  time, 
whether  officers  were  present  or  not,  had  allowed 
any  of  these  new  dances  to  be  danced.  This  ef- 
fectually extinguished  the  turkey  trot,  the 
bunny  hug  and  the  tango,  and  maintained  the 
waltz  and  the  polka  in  their  old  estate.  It  may 
seem  ridiculous  that  such  a  decree  should  be  so 
solemnly  issued,  but  I  believe  that  the  higher  au- 
thorities in  Germany  earnestly  desired  that  the 
people,  and,  especially,  the  officers  of  the  army 
and  navy,  should  learn  not  to  enjoy  themselves 
too  much.  A  great  endeavour  was  always  made 
to  keep  them  in  a  life,  so  far  as  possible,  of  Spar- 
tan simplicity.  For  instance,  the  army  officers 
were  forbidden  to  play  polo,  not  because  of  any- 
thing against  the  game,  which,  of  course,  is  splen- 
did practice  for  riding,  but  because  it  would  make 
a  distinction  in  the  army  between  rich  and  poor. 

29 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

The  Emperor's  birthday,  January  twenty-sev- 
enth, is  a  day  of  great  celebration.  At  nine- 
thirty  in  the  morning  the  Ambassadors,  Minis- 
ters and  all  the  dignitaries  of  the  court  attend 
Divine  Service  in  the  chapel  of  the  palace.  On 
this  day  in  1914,  the  Queen  of  Greece  and  many 
of  the  reigning  princes  of  the  German  States 
were  present.  In  the  evening  there  was  a  gala 
performance  in  the  opera  house,  the  entire  house 
being  occupied  by  members  of  the  court.  Be- 
tween the  acts  in  the  large  foyer,  royalties  "made 
the  circle,"  and  I  had  quite  a  long  cenversation 
with  both  the  Emperor  and  Empress  and  was 
"caught"  by  the  King  of  Saxony.  Many  of  the 
Ambassadors  have  letters  of  credence  not  only 
to  the  court  at  Berlin  but  also  to  the  rulers  of  the 
minor  German  States.  For  instance,  the  Belgian 
Minister  was  accredited  to  thirteen  countries  in 
Germany  and  the  Spanish  Ambassador  to  eleven. 
For  some  reason  or  other,  the  American  and 
Turkish  Ambassadors  are  accredited  only  to  the 
court  at  Berlin.  Some  of  the  German  rulers 
feel  this  quite  keenly,  and  the  King  of  Saxony, 
especially.  I  had  been  warned  that  he  was  very 
anxious  to  show  his  resentment  of  this  distinc- 
tion by  refusing  to  shake  hands  with  the  Ameri- 
can Ambassador.  He  was  in  the  foyer  on  the 
occasion  of  this  gala  performance  and  said  that 
he  would  like  to  have  me  presented  to  him.  I, 

30 


A    SALON    IN    THE    AMERICAN    EMBASSY 


THE   BALLROOM    OF    THE    EMBASSY.       THIS    WAS    AFTERWARD    TURNED    INTO    A 
WORKROOM    FOR   THE   RELIEF   OF   AMERICANS    IN    WAR   DAYS 


MY  FIRST  YEAR  IN  GERMANY 

of  course,  could  not  refuse,  but  forgot  the  warn- 
ing of  my  predecessors  and  put  out  my  hand, 
which  the  King  ostentatiously  neglected  to  take. 
A  few  moments  later  the  wife  of  the  Turkish 
Ambassador  was  presented  to  the  King  of  Sax- 
ony and  received  a  similar  rebuff;  but,  as  she 
was  a  daughter  of  the  Khedive  of  Egypt,  and 
therefore  a  Royal  Highness  in  her  own  right,  she 
went  around  the  King  of  Saxony,  seized  his  hand, 
which  he  had  put  behind  him,  brought  it  around 
to  the  front  and  shook  it  warmly,  a  fine  example 
of  great  presence  of  mind. 

Writing  of  all  these  things  and  looking  out 
from  a  sky-scraper  in  New  York,  these  details 
of  court  life  seem  very  frivolous  and  far  away. 
But  an  Ambassador  is  compelled  to  become  part 
of  this  system.  The  most  important  conversa- 
tions with  the  Emperor  sometimes  take  place  at 
court  functions,  and  the  Ambassador  and  his 
secretaries  often  gather  their  most  useful  bits  of 
information  over  tea  cups  or  with  the  cigars  after 
dinner. 

Aside  from  the  short  season,  Berlin  is  rather 
dull;  Bismarck  characterised  it  as  a  "desert  of 
bricks  and  newspapers." 

In  addition  to  making  visits  to  the  royalties, 
custom  required  me  to  call  first  upon  the  Im- 
perial Chancellor  and  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs.  The  other  ministers  are  supposed  to 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

call  first,  although  I  believe  the  redoubtable  von 
Tirpitz  claimed  a  different  rule.  So,  during  the 
first  winter  I  gradually  made  the  acquaintance 
of  those  people  who  sway  the  destinies  of  the 
German  Empire  and  its  seventy  millions. 

I  dined  with  the  Emperor  and  had  long  con- 
versations with  him  on  New  Year's  Day  and  at 
the  two  court  balls. 

All  during  this  winter  Germans  from  the  high- 
est down  tried  to  impress  me  with  the  great  dan- 
ger which  they  said  threatened  America  from 
Japan.  The  military  and  naval  attaches  and  I 
were  told  that  the  German  information  system 
sent  news  that  Mexico  was  full  of  Japanese 
colonels  and  America  of  Japanese  spies.  Pos- 
sibly much  of  the  prejudice  in  America  against 
the  Japanese  was  cooked  up  by  the  German  prop- 
agandists whom  we  later  learned  to  know  so  well. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  during  the  whole  of  my 
first  winter  in  Berlin  I  was  not  officially  or  semi- 
officially afforded  an  opportunity  to  meet  any  of 
the  members  of  the  Reichstag  or  any  of  the  lead- 
ers in  the  business  world.  The  great  merchants, 
whose  acquaintance  I  made,  as  well  as  the  liter- 
ary and  artistic  people,  I  had  to  seek  out;  because 
most  of  them  were  not  hoffdhig  and  I  did  not 
come  in  contact  with  them  at  any  court  functions, 
official  dinners  or  even  in  the  houses  of  the  court 
nobles  or  those  connected  with  the  government. 

32 


MY  FIRST  YEAR  IN  GERMANY 

A  very  interesting  character  whom  I  met  dur- 
ing the  first  winter  and  often  conversed  with, 
was  Prince  Henkel-Donnersmarck.  Prince  Don- 
nersmarck,  who  died  December,  1916,  at  the  age 
of  eighty-six  years,  was  the  richest  male  sub- 
ject in  Germany,  the  richest  subject  being  Frau 
von  Krupp-Bohlen,  the  heiress  of  the  Krupp  can- 
non foundry.  He  was  the  first  governor  of  Lor- 
raine during  the  war  of  1870  and  had  had  a  fin- 
ger in  all  of  the  political  and  commercial  activi- 
ties of  Germany  for  more  than  half  a  century. 
He  told  me,  on  one  occasion,  that  he  had  ad- 
vocated exacting  a  war  indemnity  of  thirty  mil- 
liards from  France  after  the  war  of  1870,  and 
said  that  France  could  easily  pay  it — and  that 
that  sum  or  much  more  should  be  exacted  as  an 
indemnity  at  the  conclusion  of  the  World  War  of 
1914.  He  said  that  he  had  always  advocated  a 
protective  tariff  for  agricultural  products  in  Ger- 
many as  well  as  encouragement  of  the  German 
manufacturing  interests:  that  agriculture  was 
necessary  to  the  country  in  order  to  provide 
strong  soldiers  for  war,  and  manufacturing  in- 
dustries to  provide  money  to  pay  for  the  army 
and  navy  and  their  equipment.  He  made  me 
promise  to  take  his  second  son  to  America  in 
order  that  he  might  see  American  life,  and  the 
great  iron  and  coal  districts  of  Pennsylvania.  Of 
course,  most  of  these  conversations  took  place 

33 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

before  the  World  War.  After  two  years  of  that 
war  and,  as  prospects  of  paying  the  expenses  of 
the  war  from  the  indemnities  to  be  exacted  from 
the  enemies  of  Germany  gradually  melted  away, 
the  Prince  quite  naturally  developed  a  great 
anxiety  as  to  how  the  expenses  of  the  war  should 
be  paid  by  Germany;  and  I  am  sure  that  this 
anxiety  had  much  to  do  with  his  death  at  the 
end  of  the  year,  1916. 

Custom  demanded  that  I  should  ask  for  an 
appointment  and  call  on  each  of  the  Ambassa- 
dors on  arrival.  The  English  Ambassador  was 
Sir  Edward  Goschen,  a  man  of  perhaps  sixty- 
eight  years,  a  widower.  He  spoke  French,  of 
course,  and  German;  and,  accompanied  by  his 
dog,  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  our  house.  I  am 
very  grateful  for  the  help  and  advice  he  so  gen- 
erously gave  me — doubly  valuable  as  coming 
from  a  man  of  his  fame  and  experience.  Jules 
Cambon  was  the  Ambassador  of  France.  His 
brother,  Paul,  is  Ambassador  to  the  Court  of  St. 
James.  Jules  Cambon  is  well-known  to  Amer- 
icans, having  passed  five  years  in  this  country. 
He  was  Ambassador  to  Spain  for  five  years,  and, 
at  the  time  of  my  arrival,  had  been  about  the 
same  period  at  Berlin.  In  spite  of  his  long  resi- 
dence in  each  of  these  countries,  he  spoke  only 
French;  but  he  possessed  a  really  marvellous  in- 
sight into  the  political  life  of  each  of  these  na- 

34 


MY  FIRST  YEAR  IN  GERMANY 

tions.  Bollati,  the  Italian  Ambassador,  was  a 
great  admirer  of  Germany;  he  spoke  German  well 
and  did  everything  possible  to  keep  Italy  out  of 
war  with  her  former  Allies  in  the  Triple  Alli- 
ance. 

Spain  was  represented  by  Polo  de  Bernabe, 
who  now  represents  the  interests  of  the  United 
States  in  Germany,  as  well  as  those  of  France, 
Russia,  Belgium,  Serbia  and  Roumania.  It  is 
a  curious  commentary  on  the  absurdity  of  war 
that,  on  leaving  Berlin,  I  handed  over  the  inter- 
ests of  the  United  States  to  this  Ambassador, 
who,  as  Spanish  minister  to  the  United  States, 
was  handed  his  passports  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Spanish-American  war !  I  am  sure  that  not  only 
he,  but  all  his  Embassy,  will  devotedly  represent 
our  interests  in  Germany.  Sverbeeu  represented 
the  interests  of  Russia;  Soughimoura,  Japan; 
and  Mouktar  Pascha,  Turkey.  The  wife  of  the 
latter  was  a  daughter  of  the  Khedive  of  Egypt, 
and  Mouktar  Pascha  himself  a  general  of  dis- 
tinction in  the  Turkish  army. 

An  Ambassador  must  keep  on  intimate  terms 
with  his  colleagues.  It  is  often  through  them 
that  he  learns  of  important  matters  affecting  his 
own  country  or  others.  All  of  these  Ambassa- 
dors and  most  of  the  Ministers  occupied  hand- 
some houses  furnished  by  their  government. 

35 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

k, 

They  had  large  salaries  and  a  fund  for  enter- 
taining. 

During  this  first  winter  before  the  war,  I  saw 
a  great  deal  of  the  German  Crown  Prince  as  well 
as  of  several  of  his  brothers. 

I  cannot  subscribe  to  the  general  opinion  of 
the  Crown  Prince.  I  found  him  a  most  agree- 
able man,  a  sharp  observer  and  the  possessor  of 
intellectual  attainments  of  no  mean  order.  He 
is  undoubtedly  popular  in  Germany,  excelling  in 
all  sports,  a  fearless  rider  and  a  good  shot.  He 
is  ably  seconded  by  the  Crown  Princess.  The 
mother  of  the  Crown  Princess  is  a  Russian 
Grand  Duchess,  and  her  father  was  a  Duke  of 
Mecklenburg-Schwerin.  She  is  a  very  beautiful 
woman  made  popular  by  her  affable  manners. 
The  one  defect  of  the  Crown  Prince  has  been  his 
eagerness  for  war;  but,  as  he  has  characterised 
this  war  as  the  most  stupid  ever  waged  in  his- 
tory, perhaps  he  will  be  satisfied,  if  he  comes  to 
the  throne,  with  what  all  Germany  has  suffered 
in  this  conflict. 

The  Crown  Prince  was  very  anxious,  before 
the  war,  to  visit  the  United  States;  and  we  had 
practically  arranged  to  make  a  trip  to  Alaska  in 
search  of  some  of  the  big  game  there,  with  stops 
at  the  principal  cities  of  America. 

The  second  son  of  the  Kaiser,  Prince  Eitel 
Fritz,  is  considered  by  the  Germans  to  have  dis- 

36 


MY  FIRST  YEAR  IN  GERMANY 

tinguished  himself  most  in  this  war.  He  is  given 
credit  for  great  personal  bravery. 

Prince  Adalbert,  the  sailor  prince,  is  quite 
American  in  his  manners.  In  February,  1914,  the 
Crown  Prince  and  Princes  Eitel  Fritz  and  Adal- 
bert came  to  our  Embassy  for  a  very  small  dance 
to  which  were  asked  all  the  pretty  American  girls 
then  in  Berlin. 

It  is  never  the  custom  to  invite  royalties  to 
an  entertainment.  They  invite  themselves  to  a 
dance  or  a  dinner,  and  the  list  of  proposed  guests 
is  always  submitted  to  them.  When  a  royalty  ar- 
rives at  the  house,  the  host  (and  the  hostess,  if 
the  royalty  be  a  woman)  always  waits  at  the 
front  door  and  escorts  the  royalties  up-stairs. 

Allison  Armour  also  gave  a  dance  at  which 
the  Crown  Prince  was  present,  following  a  din- 
ner at  the  Automobile  Club.  Armour  has  been 
a  constant  visitor  to  Germany  for  many  years, 
usually  going  in  his  yacht  to  Kiel  in  summer  and 
to  Corfu,  where  the  Emperor  goes,  in  winter. 
As  he  has  never  tried  to  obtain  anything  from 
the  Emperor,  he  has  become  quite  intimate  with 
him  and  with  all  the  members  of  the  royal  fam- 
ily. 

The  Chancellor,  von  Bethmann-Hollweg,  is  an 
enormous  man  of  perhaps  six  feet  five  or  six. 
He  comes  of  a  banking  family  in  Frankfort.  It 
is  too  soon  to  give  a  just  estimate  of  his  acts  in 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

this  war.  When  I  arrived  in  Berlin  and  until 
November,  1916,  von  Jagow  was  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs.  In  past  years  he  had  occu- 
pied the  post  of  Ambassador  to  Italy,  and  with 
great  reluctance  took  his  place  at  the  head  of 
the  Foreign  Office.  Zimmermann  was  an  Under 
Secretary,  succeeding  von  Jagow  when  the  lat- 
ter was  practically  forced  out  of  office.  Zimmer- 
mann, on  account  of  his  plain  and  hearty  manners 
and  democratic  air,  was  more  of  a  favourite  with 
the  Ambassadors  and  members  of  the  Reichstag 
than  von  Jagow,  who,  in  appearance  and  man- 
ner, was  the  ideal  old-style  diplomat  of  the  stage. 

Von  Jagow  was  not  a  good  speaker  and  the 
agitation  against  him  was  started  by  those  who 
claimed  that,  in  answering  questions  in  the 
Reichstag,  he  did  not  make  a  forceful  enough 
appearance  on  behalf  of  the  government.  Von 
Jagow  did  not  cultivate  the  members  of  the 
Reichstag  and  his  delicate  health  prevented  him 
from  undertaking  more  than  the  duties  of  his  of- 
fice. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  believe  that  von  Jagow 
had  a  juster  estimate  of  foreign  nations  than 
Zimmermann,  and  more  correctly  divined  the 
thoughts  of  the  American  people  in  this  war  than 
did  his  successor.  I  thought  that  I  enjoyed  the 
personal  friendship  of  both  von  Jagow  and  Zim- 
mermann and,  therefore,  was  rather  unpleasantly 

38 


MY  FIRST  YEAR  IN  GERMANY 

surprised  when  I  saw  in  the  papers  that  Zimmer- 
mann  had  stated  in  the  Reichstag  that  he  had  been 
compelled,  from  motives  of  policy,  to  keep  on 
friendly  terms  with  me.  I  sincerely  hope  that 
what  he  said  on  this  occasion  was  incorrectly  re- 
ported. Von  Jagow,  after  his  fall,  took  charge 
of  a  hospital  at  Libau  in  the  occupied  portion  of 
Russia.  This  shows  the  devotion  to  duty  of  the 
Prussian  noble  class,  and  their  readiness  to  take 
up  any  task,  however  humble,  that  may  help 
their  country. 


39 


CHAPTER  II 

POLITICAL  AND  GSOGRAPHICAI, 

MY  commission  read,  "Ambassador  to  Ger- 
many." 

It  is  characteristic  of  our  deep  ignorance  of 
all  foreign  affairs  that  I  was  appointed  Ambas- 
sador to  a  place  which  does  not  exist.  Politically, 
there  is  no  such  place  as  "Germany."  There  are 
the  twenty-five  States,  Prussia,  Bavaria,  Wiirt- 
temberg,  Saxony,  etc.,  which  make  up  the  "Ger- 
man Empire,"  but  there  is  no  such  political  en- 
tity as  "Germany." 

These  twenty-five  States  have  votes  in  the 
Bundesrat,  a  body  which  may  be  said  to  cor- 
respond remotely  to  our  United  States  Senate. 
But  each  State  has  a  different  number  of  votes. 
Prussia  has  seventeen,  Bavaria  six,  Wiirttem- 
berg  and  Saxony  four  each,  Baden  and  Hesse 
three  each,  Mecklenburg-Schwerin  and  Bruns- 
wick two  each,  and  the  rest  one  each.  Prussia 
controls  Brunswick. 

The  Reichstag,  or  Imperial  Parliament,  cor- 
responds to  our  House  of  Representatives.  The 

.-10 


POLITICAL  AND  GEOGRAPHICAL 

members  are  elected  by  manhood  suffrage  of 
those  over  twenty-five.  But  in  practice  the  Reichs- 
tag is  nothing  but  a  debating  society  because  of 
the  preponderating  power  of  the  Bundesrat,  or 
upper  chamber.  At  the  head  of  the  ministry 
is  the  Chancellor,  appointed  by  the  Emperor ;  and 
the  other  Ministers,  such  as  Colonies,  Interior, 
Education,  Justice  and  Foreign  Affairs,  are  but 
underlings  of  the  Chancellor  and  appointed  by 
him.  The  Chancellor  is  not  responsible  to  the 
Reichstag,  as  Bethmann-Hollweg  clearly  stated 
at  the  time  of  the  Zabern  affair,  but  only  to  the 
Emperor. 

It  is  true  that  an  innovation  properly  belong- 
ing only  to  a  parliamentary  government  was  in- 
troduced some  seven  years  ago,  viz.,  that  the 
ministers  must  answer  questions  (as  in  Eng- 
land) put  them  by  the  members  of  the  Reichstag. 
But  there  the  likeness  to  a  parliamentary  govern- 
ment begins  and  ends. 

The  members  of  the  Bundesrat  are  named  by 
the  Princes  of  the  twenty-five  States  making  up 
the  German  Empire.  Prussia,  which  has  seven- 
teen votes,  may  name  seventeen  members  of  the 
Bundesrat  or  one  member,  who,  however,  when 
he  votes  casts  seventeen  votes.  The  votes  of  a 
State  must  always  be  cast  as  a  unit.  In  the  usual 
procedure  bills  are  prepared  and  adopted  in  the 
Bundesrat  and  then  sent  to  the  Reichstag  whence, 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

if  passed,  they  return  to  the  Bundesrat  where 
the  final  approval  must  take  place.  Therefore, 
in  practice,  the  Bundesrat  makes  the  laws  with 
the  assent  of  the  Reichstag.  The  members  of  the 
Bundesrat  have  the  right  to  appear  and  make 
speeches  in  the  Reichstag.  The  fundamental  con- 
stitution of  the  German  Empire  is  not  changed, 
as  with  us,  by  a  separate  body  but  is  changed  in 
the  same  way  that  an  ordinary  law  is  passed ;  ex- 
cept that  if  there  are  fourteen  votes  against  the 
proposed  change  in  the  Bundesrat  the  proposi- 
tion is  defeated,  and,  further,  the  constitution 
cannot  be  changed  with  respect  to  rights  ex- 
pressly granted  by  it  to  any  one  of  the  twenty-five 
States  without  the  assent  of  that  State. 

In  order  to  pass  a  law  a  majority  vote  in  the 
Bundesrat  and  Reichstag  is  sufficient  if  there  is 
a  quorum  present,  and  a  quorum  is  a  majority 
of  the  members  elected  in  the  Reichstag:  in  the 
Bundesrat  the  quorum  consists  of  such  members 
as  are  present  at  a  regularly  called  meeting,  pro- 
viding the  Chancellor  or  the  Vice-Chancellor  at- 
tends. 

The  boundaries  of  the  districts  sending  mem- 
bers to  the  Reichstag  have  not  been  changed 
since  1872,  while,  in  the  meantime,  a  great  shift- 
ing of  population,  as  well  as  great  increase  of 
population  has  taken  place.  And  because  of  this, 
the  Reichstag  to-day  does  not  represent  the  peo- 

42 


POLITICAL  AND  GEOGRAPHICAL 

pie  of  Germany  in  the  sense  intended  by  the 
framers  of  the  Imperial  Constitution. 

Much  of  the  legislation  that  affects  the  every- 
day life  of  a  German  emanates  from  the  parlia- 
ments of  Prussia,  Bavaria  and  Saxony,  etc.,  as 
with  us  in  our  State  Legislatures.  The  purely 
legislative  power  of  the  ministers  and  Bundesrat 
is,  however,  large.  These  German  States  have 
constitutions  of  some  sort.  The  Grand  Duchies 
of  Mecklenburg  have  no  constitution  whatever. 
It  is  understood  that  the  people  themselves  do  not 
want  one,  on  financial  grounds,  fearing  that 
many  expenses  now  borne  by  the  Grand  Duke 
out  of  his  large  private  income,  would  be  saddled 
on  the  people.  The  other  States  have  Constitu- 
tions varying  in  form.  In  Prussia  there  are  a 
House  of  Lords  and  a  House  of  Deputies.  The 
members  of  the  latter  are  elected  by  a  system  of 
circle  votes,  by  which  the  vote  of  one  rich  man 
voting  in  circle  number  one  counts  as  much  as 
thousands  voting  in  circle  number  three.  It  is 
the  recognition  by  Bethmann-Hollweg  that  this 
vicious  system  must  be  changed  that  brought 
down  on  him  the  wrath  of  the  Prussian  country 
squires,  who  for  so  long  have  ruled  the  German 
Empire,  filling  places,  civil  and  military,  with 
their  children  and  relatives. 

In  considering  Germany,  the  immense  influ- 
ence of  the  military  party  must  not  be  left  out  of 

43 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

account ;  and,  with  the  developments  of  the  navy, 
that  branch  of  the  service  also  claimed  a  share 
in  guiding  the  policy  of  the  Government. 

The  administrative,  executive  and  judicial  offi- 
cers of  Prussia  are  not  elected.  The  country  is 
governed  and  judged  by  men  who  enter  this 
branch  of  the  government  service  exactly  as  oth- 
ers enter  the  army  or  navy.  These  are  gradu- 
ally promoted  through  the  various  grades.  This 
applies  to  judges,  clerks  of  courts,  district  attor- 
neys and  the  officials  who  govern  the  political 
divisions  of  Prussia,  for  Prussia  is  divided  into 
circles,  presidencies  and  provinces.  For  instance, 
a  young  man  may  enter  the  government  service 
as  assistant  to  the  clerk  of  some  court.  He  may 
then  become  district  attorney  in  a  small  town, 
then  clerk  of  a  larger  court,  possibly  attached  to 
the  police  presidency  of  a  large  city;  he  may  then 
become  a  minor  judge,  etc.,  until  finally  he  be- 
comes a  judge  of  one  of  the  higher  courts  or  an 
over-president  of  a  province.  Practically  the 
only  elective  officers  who  have  any  power  are 
members  of  the  Reichstag  and  the  Prussian  Leg- 
islature, and  there,  as  I  have  shown,  the  power 
is  very  small.  Mayors  and  City  Councillors  are 
elected  in  Prussia,  but  have  little  power ;  and  are 
elected  by  the  vicious  system  of  circle  voting. 

Time  and  again  during  the  course  of  the  Great 
War  when  I  made  some  complaint  or  request  af- 

44 


POLITICAL  AND  GEOGRAPHICAL 

fecting  the  interests  of  one  of  the  various  na- 
tions I  represented,  I  was  met  in  the  Foreign  Of- 
fice by  the  statement,  "We  can  do  nothing  with 
the  military.  Please  read  Bismarck's  memoirs 
and  you  will  see  what  difficulty  he  had  with  the 
military."  Undoubtedly,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
the  Chancellor  seldom  took  strong  ground,  the 
influence  which  both  the  army  and  navy  claimed 
in  dictating  the  policy  of  the  Empire  was  greatly 
increased. 

Roughly  speaking  there  are  three  great  politi- 
cal divisions  or  parties  in  the  German  Reichstag. 
To  the  right  of  the  presiding  officer  sit  the  Con- 
servatives. Most  of  these  are  members  from  the 
Prussian  Junker  or  squire  class.  They  are  strong 
for  the  rights  of  the  crown  and  against  any  ex- 
tension of  the  suffrage  in  Prussia  or  anywhere 
else.  They  form  probably  the  most  important 
body  of  conservatives  now  existing  in  any  coun- 
try in  the  world.  Their  leader,  Heydebrand,  is 
known  as  the  uncrowned  king  of  Prussia.  On 
the  left  side  the  Social  Democrats  sit.  As  they 
evidently  oppose  the  kingship  and  favour  a  re- 
public, no  Social  Democratic  member  has  ever 
been  called  into  the  government.  They  represent 
the  great  industrial  populations  of  Germany. 
Roughly,  they  constitute  about  one-third  of  the 
Reichstag,  and  would  sit  there  in  greater  num- 
bers if  Germany  were  again  redistricted  so  that 

45 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

proper  representation  were  given  to  the  cities,  to 
which  there  has  been  a  great  rush  of  population 
since  the  time  when  the  Reichstag  districts  were 
originally  constituted. 

In  the  centre,  and  holding  the  balance  of 
power,  sit  the  members  of  the  Centrum  or  Cath- 
olic body.  -  Among  them  are  many  priests.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  in  this  war  Roman  Catholic 
opinion  in  neutral  countries,  like  Spain,  inclines 
to  the  side  of  Germany ;  while  in  Germany,  to  pro- 
tect their  religious  liberties,  the  Catholic  popula- 
tion vote  as  Catholics  to  send  Catholic  members 
to  the  Reichstag,  and  these  sit  and  vote  as  Cath- 
olics alone. 

Germans  high  in  rank  in  the  government  often 
told  me  that  no  part  of  conquered  Poland  would 
ever  be  incorporated  in  Prussia  or  the  Empire, 
because  it  was  not  desirable  to  add  to  the  Roman 
Catholic  population;  that  they  had  troubles 
enough  with  the  Catholics  now  in  Germany  and 
had  no  desire  to  add  to  their  numbers.  This, 
and  the  desire  to  lure  the  Poles  into  the  creation 
of  a  national  army  which  could  be  utilised  by  the 
German  machine,  were  the  reasons  for  the  crea- 
tion by  Germany  (with  the  assent  of  Austria)  of 
the  new  country  of  Poland. 

This  Catholic  party  is  the  result  in  Germany 
of  the  Kulturkampf ,  or  War  for  Civilisation,  as 
it  was  called  by  Bismarck,  a  contest  dating  from 

46 


POLITICAL  AND  GEOGRAPHICAL 

1870  between  the  State  in  Germany  and  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church. 

Prussia  has  always  been  the  centre  of  Protest- 
antism in  Germany,  although  there  are  many 
Roman  Catholics  in  the  Rhine  Provinces  of 
Prussia,  and  in  that  part  of  Prussia  inhabited 
principally  by  Poles,  originally  part  of  the  King- 
dom of  Poland. 

Baden  and  Bavaria,  the  two  principal  South 
German  States,  and  others  are  Catholic.  In 
1870,  on  the  withdrawal  of  the  French  garrison 
from  Rome,  the  Temporal  Power  of  the  Pope 
ended,  and  Bismarck,  though  appealed  to  by 
Catholics,  took  no  interest  in  the  defence  of  the 
Papacy.  The  conflict  between  the  Roman  Cath- 
olics and  the  Government  in  Germany  was  pre- 
cipitated by  the  promulgation  by  the  Vatican 
Council,  in  1870,  of  the  Dogma  of  the  Infallibility 
of  the  Pope. 

A  certain  number  of  German  pastors  and 
bishops  refused  to  subscribe  to  the  new  dogma. 
In  the  conflict  that  ensued  these  pastors  and  bish- 
ops were  backed  by  the  government.  The  relig- 
ious orders  were  suppressed,  civil  marriage  made 
compulsory  and  the  State  assumed  new  powers 
not  only  in  the  appointment  but  even  in  the  edu- 
cation of  the  Catholic  priests.  The  Jesuits  were 
expelled  from  Germany  in  1872.  These  meas- 
ures, generally  known  as  the  May  Laws,  be- 

47 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

cause  passed  in  May,  1873,  l&74  and 
led  to  the  creation  and  strengthening  of  the  Cen- 
trum or  Catholic  party.  For  a  long  period  many 
churches  were  vacant  in  Prussia.  Finally,  ow- 
ing to  the  growth  of  the  Centrum,  Bismarck 
gave  in.  The  May  Laws  were  rescinded  in  1886 
and  the  religious  orders,  the  Jesuits  excepted, 
were  permitted  to  return  in  1887.  Civil  mar- 
riage, however,  remained  obligatory  in  Prussia. 

Ever  since  the  Kulturkampf  the  Centrum  has 
held  the  balance  of  power  in  Germany,  acting 
sometimes  with  the  Conservatives  and  some- 
times with  the  Social  Democrats. 

In  addition  to  these  three  great  parties,  there 
are  minor  parties  and  groups  which  sometimes 
act  with  one  party  and  sometimes  with  another, 
the  National  Liberals,  for  example,  and  the  Pro- 
gressives. Since  the  war  certain  members  of  the 
National  Liberal  party  were  most  bitter  in  assail- 
ing President  Wilson  and  the  United  States.  In 
the  demand  for  ruthless  submarine  war  they 
acted  with  the  Conservatives.  There  are  also 
Polish,  Hanoverian,  Danish  and  Alsatian  mem- 
bers of  the  Reichstag. 

There  are  three  great  race  questions  in  Ger- 
many. First  of  all,  that  of  Alsace-Lorraine.  It 
is  unnecessary  to  go  at  length  into  this  well- 
known  question.  In  the  chapter  on  the  affair 
at  Zabern,  something  will  be  seen  of  the  attitude 

48 


POLITICAL  AND  GEOGRAPHICAL 

of  the  troops  toward  the  civil  population.  At 
the  outbreak  of  the  war  several  of  the  deputies, 
sitting  in  the  Reichstag  as  members  from  Alsace- 
Lorraine,  crossed  the  frontier  and  joined  the 
French  army. 

If  there  is  one  talent  which  the  Germans  super- 
latively lack,  it  is  that  of  ruling  over  other  peo- 
ples and  inducing  other  people  to  become  part  of 
their  nation. 

It  is  now  a  long  time  since  portions  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Poland,  by  various  partitions  of 
that  kingdom,  were  incorporated  with  Prussia, 
but  the  Polish  question  is  more  alive  to-day  than 
at  the  time  of  the  last  partition. 

The  Poles  are  of  a  livelier  race  than  the  Ger- 
mans, are  Roman  Catholics  and  always  retain 
their  dream  of  a  reconstituted  and  independent 
Kingdom  of  Poland. 

It  is  hard  to  conceive  that  Poland  was  at  one 
time  perhaps  the  most  powerful  kingdom  of  Eu- 
rope, with  a  population  numbering  twenty  mil- 
lions and  extending  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Car- 
pathians and  the  Black  Sea,  including  in  its  ter- 
ritory the  basins  of  the  Warta,  Vistula,  Dwina, 
Dnieper  and  Upper  Dniester,  and  that  it  had 
under  its  dominion  besides  Poles  proper  and  the 
Baltic  Slavs,  the  Lithuanians,  the  White  Rus- 
sians and  the  Little  Russians  or  Ruthenians. 

The  Polish  aristocracy  was  absolutely  inca- 
49 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

pable  of  governing  its  own  country,  which  fell  an 
easy  prey  to  the  intrigues  of  Frederick  the  Great 
and  the  two  Empresses,  Maria  Theresa  of  Aus- 
tria and  Catherine  of  Russia.  The  last  partition 
of  Poland  was  in  the  year  1795. 

Posen,  at  one  time  one  of  the  capitals  of  the 
old  kingdom  of  Poland,  is  the  intellectual  centre 
of  that  part  of  Poland  which  has  been  incor- 
porated into  Prussia.  For  years  Prussia  has  al- 
ternately cajoled  and  oppressed  the  Poles,  and 
has  made  every  endeavour  to  replace  the  Polish 
inhabitants  with  German  colonists.  A  commis- 
sion has  been  established  which  buys  estates 
from  Poles  and  sells  them  to  Germans.  This 
commission  has  the  power  of  condemning  the 
lands  of  Poles,  taking  these  lands  from  them  by 
force,  compensating  them  at  a  rate  determined 
by  the  commission  and  settling  Germans  on  the 
lands  so  seized.  This  commission  has  its  head- 
quarters in  Posen.  The  result  has  not  been  suc- 
cessful. All  the  country  side  surrounding  Posen 
and  the  city  itself  are  divided  into  two  factions. 
By  going  to  one  hotel  or  the  other  you  announce 
that  you  are  pro-German  or  pro-Polish.  Poles 
will  not  deal  in  shops  kept  by  Germans  or  in  shops 
unless  the  signs  are  in  Polish. 

The  sons  of  Germans  who  have  settled  in  Po- 
land under  the  protection  of  the  commission  often 
marry  Polish  women.  The  invariable  result  of 

50 


POLITICAL  AND  GEOGRAPHICAL 

these  mixed  marriages  is  that  the  children  are 
Catholics  and  Poles.  Polish  deputies  voting  as 
Poles  sit  in  the  Prussian  legislature  and  in  the 
Reichstag,  and  if  a  portion  of  the  old  Kingdom 
of  Poland  is  made  a  separate  country  at  the  end 
of  this  war,  it  will  have  the  effect  of  making  the 
Poles  in  Prussia  more  restless  and  more  aggres- 
sive than  ever. 

In  order  to  win-  the  sympathies  of  the  Poles, 
the  Emperor  caused  a  royal  castle  to  be  built 
within  recent  years  in  the  city  of  Posen,  and  ap- 
pointed a  popular  Polish  gentleman  who  had 
served  in  the  Prussian  army  and  was  attached  to 
the  Emperor,  the  Count  Hutten-Czapski,  as  its 
lord-warden.  In  this  castle  was  a  very  beautiful 
Byzantine  chapel  built  from  designs  especially 
selected  by  the  Emperor.  In  January,  1914,  we 
went  with  Allison  Armour  and  the  Cassatts,  Mrs. 
Wiltsee  and  Mrs.  Whitehouse  on  a  trip  to  Posen 
to  see  this  chapel. 

Some  of  our  German  friends  tried  to  play  a 
joke  on  us  by  telling  us  that  the  best  hotel  was 
the  hotel  patronised  by  the  Poles.  To  have  gone 
there  would  have  been  to  declare  ourselves  anti- 
German  and  pro-Polish,  but  we  were  warned  in 
time.  The  castle  has  a  large  throne  room  and 
ball-room;  in  the  hall  is  a  stuffed  aurochs  killed 
by  the  Emperor.  The  aurochs  is  a  species  of  buf- 
falo greatly  resembling  those  which  used  to  roam 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

our  western  prairies.  The  breed  has  been  pre- 
served on  certain  great  estates  in  eastern  Ger- 
many and  in  the  hunting  forests  of  the  Czar  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Warsaw. 

Some  of  the  Poles  told  me  that  at  the  first  at- 
tempt to  give  a  court  ball  in  this  new  castle  the 
Polish  population  in  the  streets  threw  ink  through 
the  carriage  windows  on  the  dresses  of  the  ladies 
going  to  the  ball  and  thus  made  it  a  failure.  The 
chapel  of  the  castle  is  very  beautiful  and  is  a 
great  credit  to  the  Emperor's  taste  as  an  archi- 
tect. 

While  being  shown  through  the  Emperor's 
private  apartments  in  this  castle,  I  noticed  a  sad- 
dle on  a  sort  of  elevated  stool  in  front  of  a  desk. 
I  asked  the  guide  what  this  was  for :  he  told  me 
that  the  Emperor,  when  working,  always  sits 
in  a  saddle. 

In  Posen,  in  a  book-store,  the  proprietor 
brought  out  for  me  a  number  of  books  carica- 
turing the  German  rule  of  Alsace-Lorraine.  It 
is  curious  that  a  community  of  interests  should 
make  a  market  for  these  books  in  Polish  Posen. 

Although  not  so  well  advertised,  the  Polish 
question  is  as  acute  as  that  of  Alsace-Lorraine. 

After  its  successful  war  in  1866  against  Aus- 
tria, Bavaria,  Saxony,  Baden,  Hanover,  etc., 
Prussia  became  possessed  of  the  two  duchies  of 
Schleswig-Holstein,  which  are  to  the  south  of 

52 


POLITICAL  AND  GEOGRAPHICAL 

Denmark  on  the  Jutland  Peninsula.  Here, 
strangely  enough,  there  is  a  Danish  question.  A 
number  of  Danes  inhabit  these  duchies  and  have 
been  irritated  by  the  Prussian  officials  and  officers 
into  preserving  their  national  feeling  intact  ever 
since  1866.  Galling  restrictions  have  been  made, 
the  very  existence  of  which  intensifies  the  hatred 
and  prevents  the  assimilation  of  these  Danes. 
For  instance,  Amundsen,  the  Arctic  explorer, 
was  forbidden  to  lecture  in  Danish  in  these 
duchies  during  the  winter  of  1913-14,  and  there 
were  regulations  enforced  preventing  more  than 
a  certain  number  of  these  Danish  people  from 
assembling  in  a  hotel,  as  well  as  regulations 
against  the  employment  of  Danish  servants. 

In  1866,  after  its  successful  war,  Prussia 
wiped  out  the  old  kingdom  of  Hanover  and  drove 
its  king  into  exile  in  Austria.  To-day  there  is 
still  a  party  of  protest  against  this  aggression. 
The  Kaiser  believes,  however,  that  the  ghost  of 
the  claim  of  the  Kings  of  Hanover  was  laid  when 
he  married  his  only  daughter  to  the  heir  of  the 
House  of  Hanover  and  gave  the  young  pair  the 
vacant  Duchy  of  Brunswick.  That  this  youn^ 
man  will  inherit  the  great  Guelph  treasure  was 
no  drawback  to  the  match  in  the  eyes  of  those  in 
Berlin. 

There  is  a  hatred  of  Prussia  in  other  parts  of 
Germany,  but  coupled  with  so  much  fear  that  it 

53 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

will  never  take  practical  shape.  In  Bavaria,  for 
example,  even  the  comic  newspapers  have  for 
years  ridiculed  the  Prussians  and  the  House  of 
Hohenzollern.  The  smashing  defeat  by  Prussia 
of  Austria  and  the  allied  German  States,  Ba- 
varia, Saxony,  Hesse,  Hanover,  etc.,  in  1866,  and 
the  growth  of  Prussianism  since  then  in  all  of 
these  countries,  keep  the  people  from  any  overt 
act.  It  is  a  question,  perhaps,  as  to  how  these 
countries,  especially  Bavaria,  would  act  in  case 
of  the  utter  defeat  of  Germany.  But  at  present 
they  must  be  counted  on  only  as  faithful  serv- 
ants, in  a  military  way,  of  the  German  Emperor. 

Montesquieu,  the  author  of  the  "Esprit  des 
Lois,"  says,  "All  law  comes  from  the  soil,"  and 
it  has  been  claimed  that  residence  in  the  hot 
climate  of  the  tropics  in  some  measure  changes 
Anglo-Saxon  character.  It  is,  therefore,  always 
well  in  judging  national  character  to  know  some- 
thing of  the  physical  characteristics  and  climate 
of  the  country  which  a  nation  inhabits. 

The  heart  of  modern  Germany  is  the  great 
north  central  plain  which  comprises  practically 
all  of  the  original  kingdom  of  Prussia,  stretch- 
ing northward  from  the  Saxon  and  Hartz  moun- 
tains to  the  North  and  Baltic  seas.  It  is  from  this 
dreary  and  infertile  plain  that  for  many  cen- 
turies conquering  military  races  have  poured 
over  Europe.  The  climate  is  not  so  cold  in  win- 

54 


POLITICAL  AND  GEOGRAPHICAL 

ter  as  that  of  the  northern  part  of  the  United 
States.  There  is  much  rain  and  the  winter  skies 
are  so  dark  that  the  absence  of  the  sun  must  have 
some  effect  upon  the  character  of  the  people.  The 
Saxons  inhabit  a  more  mountainous  country; 
Wiirttemberg  and  Baden  are  hilly;  Bavaria  is  a 
land  of  beauty,  diversified  with  lovely  lakes  and 
mountains.  The  soft  outlines  of  the  vine-covered 
hills  of  the  Rhine  Valley  have  long  been  the  ad- 
miration of  travellers. 

The  inhabitants  of  Prussia  were  originally  not 
Germanic,  but  rather  Slavish  in  type;  and,  in- 
deed, to-day  in  the  forest  of  the  River  Spree,  on 
which  Berlin  is  situated,  and  only  about  fifty 
miles  from  that  city,  there  still  dwell  descendants 
of  the  original  Wendish  inhabitants  of  the  coun- 
try who  speak  the  Wendish  language.  The  wet- 
nurses,  whose  picturesque  dress  is  so  noticeable 
on  the  streets  of  Berlin,  all  come  from  this  Wen- 
dish  colony,  which  has  been  preserved  through 
the  many  wars  that  have  swept  over  this  part 
of  Germany  because  of  the  refuge  afforded  in 
the  swamps  and  forests  of  this  district. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Rhine  Valley  drink  wine 
instead  of  beer.  They  are  more  lively  in  their 
disposition  than  the  Prussians,  Saxons  and  Ba- 
varians, who  are  of  a  heavy  and  phlegmatic  na- 
ture. The  Bavarians  are  noted  for  their  prowess 
as  beer  drinkers,  and  it  is  not  at  all  unusual  for 

55 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

prosperous  burghers  of  Munich  to  dispose  of 
thirty  large  glasses  of  beer  in  a  day;  hence  the 
cures  which  exist  all  over  Germany  and  where 
the  average  German  business  man  spends  part, 
at  least,  of  his  annual  vacation. 

In  peace  times  the  Germans  are  heavy  eaters. 
As  some  one  says,  "It  is  not  true  that  the  Ger- 
mans eat  all  the  time,  but  they  eat  all  the  time 
except  during  seven  periods  of  the  day  when  they 
take  their  meals."  And  it  is  a  fact  that  prosper- 
ous merchants  of  Berlin,  before  the  war,  had 
seven  meals  a  day;  first  breakfast  at  a  comfort- 
ably early  hour ;  second  breakfast  at  about  eleven, 
of  perhaps  a  glass  of  milk  or  perhaps  a  glass  of 
beer  and  sandwiches;  a  very  heavy  lunch  of  four 
or  five  courses  with  wine  and  beer;  coffee  and 
cakes  at  three;  tea  and  sandwiches  or  sand- 
wiches and  beer  at  about  five;  a  strong  dinner 
with  several  kinds  of  wines  at  about  seven  or 
seven-thirty;  and  a  substantial  supper  before 
going  to  bed. 

The  Germans  are  wonderful  judges  of  wines, 
and,  at  any  formal  dinner,  use  as  many  as  eight 
varieties.  The  best  wine  is  passed  in  glasses  on 
trays,  and  the  guests  are  not  expected,  of  course, 
to  take  this  wine  unless  they  actually  desire  to 
drink  it.  I  know  one  American  woman  who  was 
stopping  at  a  Prince's  castle  in  Hungary  and 
who,  on  the  first  night,  allowed  the  butler  to  fill 

-6 


POLITICAL  AND  GEOGRAPHICAL 

her  glasses  with  wine  which  she  did  not  drink. 
The  second  evening  the  butler  passed  her  sternly 
by,  and  she  was  offered  no  more  wine  during  her 
stay  in  the  castle. 

Many  of  the  doctors  who  were  with  me 
thought  that  the  heavy  eating  and  large  consump- 
tion of  wine  and  beer  had  unfavourably  affected 
the  German  national  character,  and  had  made 
the  people  more  aggressive  and  irritable  and  con- 
sequently readier  for  war.  The  influence  of  diet 
on  national  character  should  not  be  under-esti- 
mated. Meat-eating  nations  have  always  ruled 
vegetarians. 


57 


CHAPTER  III 

DIPLOMATIC  WORK  OF  FIRST  WINTER   IN  BERLIN 

DURING  this  first  winter  in  Berlin,  I  spent 
each  morning  in  the  Embassy  office,  and, 
if  I  had  any  business  at  the  Foreign  Office,  called 
there  about  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  It  was 
the  custom  that  all  Ambassadors  should  call  on 
Tuesday  afternoons  at  the  Foreign  Office,  going 
in  to  see  the  Foreign  Minister  in  the  order  of 
their  arrival  in  the  waiting-room,  and  to  have  a 
short  talk  with  him  about  current  diplomatic  af- 
fairs. 

In  the  previous  chapter  I  have  given  a  detailed 
account  of  the  ceremonies  of  court  life,  because 
a  knowledge  of  this  life  is  essential  to  a  grasp 
of  the  spirit  which  animates  those  ruling  the 
destinies  of  the  German  Empire. 

My  first  winter,  however,  was  not  all  cakes  and 
ale.  There  were  several  interesting  bits  of  dip- 
lomatic work.  First,  we  were  then  engaged  in 
our  conflict  with  Huerta,  the  Dictator  of  Mex- 
ico, and  it  was  part  of  my  work  to  secure  from 
Germany  promises  that  she  would  not  recognise 
this  Mexican  President. 

58 


DIPLOMATIC  WORK  OF  FIRST  WINTER 

I  also  spent  a  great  deal  of  time  in  endeavour- 
ing to  get  the  German  Government  to  take  part 
officially  in  the  San  Francisco  Fair,  but,  so  far 
as  I  could  make  out,  England,  probably  at  the 
instance  of  Germany,  seemed  to  have  entered  into 
some  sort  of  agreement,  or  at  any  rate  a  tacit 
understanding,  that  neither  country  would  par- 
ticipate officially  in  this  Exposition. 

After  the  lamentable  failure  of  the  Jamestown 
Exposition,  the  countries  of  Europe  were  cer- 
tainly not  to  be  blamed  for  not  spending  their 
money  in  aid  of  a  similar  enterprise.  But  I  be- 
lieve that  the  attitude  of  Germany  had  a  deeper 
significance,  and  that  certain,  at  least,  of  the  Ger- 
man statesmen  had  contemplated  a  rapproche- 
ment with  England  and  a  mutual  spanking  of 
America  and  its  Monroe  Doctrine  by  these  two 
great  powers.  Later  I  was  informed,  by  a  man 
high  in  the  German  Foreign  Office,  that  Germany 
had  proposed  to  England  a  joint  intervention  in 
Mexico,  an  invasion  which  would  have  put  an  end 
forever  to  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  of  course  to  be 
followed  by  the  forceful  colonisation  of  Central 
and  South  America  by  European  Powers.  I  was 
told  that  England  refused.  But  whether  this 
proposition  and  refusal  in  fact  were  made,  can 
be  learned  from  the  archives  of  the  British  For- 
eign Office. 

During  this  period  of  trouble  with  Mexico, 

59 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

the  German  Press,  almost  without  exception,  and 
especially  that  part  of  it  controlled  by  the  Gov- 
ernment and  by  the  Conservatives  or  Junkers, 
was  most  bitter  in  its  attitude  towards  America. 

The  reason  for  this  was  the  underlying  hatred 
of  an  autocracy  for  a  successful  democracy,  envy 
of  the  wealth,  liberty  and  commercial  success  of 
America,  and  a  deep  and  strong  resentment 
against  the  Monroe  Doctrine  which  prevented 
Germany  from  using  her  powerful  fleet  and  great 
military  force  to  seize  a  foothold  in  the  Western 
hemisphere. 

Germany  came  late  into  the  field  of  colonisa- 
tion in  her  endeavour  to  find  "a  place  in  the  sun." 
The  colonies  secured  were  not  habitable  by  white 
men.  Togo,  Kameroons,  German  East  Africa, 
are  too  tropical  in  climate,  too  subject  to  tropical 
diseases,  ever  to  become  successful  German  col- 
onies. German  Southwest  Africa  has  a  more 
healthy  climate  but  is  a  barren  land.  About  the 
only  successful  industry  there  has  been  that  of 
gathering  the  small  diamonds  that  were  discov- 
ered in  the  sands  of  the  beaches  and  of  the  deserts 
running  back  from  the  sea. 

On  the  earnest  request  of  Secretary  Bryan,  I 
endeavoured  to  persuade  the  German  authorities 
to  have  Germany  become  a  signatory  to  the  so- 
called  Bryan  Peace  Treaties.  After  many  ef- 
forts and  long  interviews,  von  Jagow,  the  For- 

60 


DIPLOMATIC  WORK  OF  FIRST  WINTER 

eign  Minister,  finally  told  me  that  Germany- 
would  not  sign  these  treaties  because  the  greatest 
asset  of  Germany  in  war  was  her  readiness  for 
a  sudden  assault,  that  they  had  no  objection  to 
signing  the  treaty  with  America,  but  that  they 
feared  they  would  then  be  immediately  asked  to 
sign  similar  treaties  with  England,  France  and 
Russia,  that  if  they  refused  to  sign  with  these 
countries  the  refusal  would  almost  be  equivalent 
to  a  declaration  of  war,  and,  if  they  did  sign, 
intending  in  good  faith  to  stand  by  the  treaty, 
that  Germany  would  be  deprived  of  her  great- 
est asset  in  war,  namely,  her  readiness  for  a  sud- 
den and  overpowering  attack. 

I  also,  during  this  first  winter,  studied  and 
made  reports  on  the  commercial  situation  of  Ger- 
many and  especially  the  German  discriminations 
against  American  goods.  To  these  matters  I 
shall  refer  in  more  detail  in  another  chapter. 

Opposition  and  attention  to  the  oil  monopoly 
project  also  occupied  a  great  part  of  my  working 
hours.  Petroleum  is  used  very  extensively  in  Ger- 
many for  illuminating  purposes  by  the  poorer  part 
of  the  population,  especially  in  the  farming  vil- 
lages and  industrial  towns.  This  oil  used  in  Ger- 
many comes  from  two  sources  of  supply,  from 
America  and  from  the  oil  wells  of  Galicia  and 
Roumania.  The  German  American  Oil  Company 
there,  through  which  the  American  oil  was  dis- 

61 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

tributed,  although  a  German  company,  was  con- 
trolled by  American  capital,  and  German  capital 
was  largely  interested  in  the  Galician  and  Rou- 
manian oil  fields.  The  oil  from  Galicia  and  Rou- 
mania  is  not  so  good  a  quality  as  that  imported 
from  America. 

Before  my  arrival  in  Germany  the  govern- 
ment had  proposed  a  law  creating  the  oil  mo- 
nopoly ;  that  is  to  say,  a  company  was  to  be  cre- 
ated, controlled  by  the  government  for  the  pur- 
pose of  carrying  on  the  entire  oil  business  of 
Germany,  and  no  other  person  or  company,  by 
its  provisions,  was  to  be  allowed  to  sell  any  illu- 
minating oil  or  similar  products  in  the  Empire. 
The  bill  provided  that  the  business  of  those  en- 
gaged in  the  wholesale  selling  of  oil,  and  their 
plants,  etc.,  should  be  taken  over  by  this  govern- 
ment company,  condemned  and  paid  for.  The 
German  American  Company,  however,  had  also 
a  retail  business  and  plant  throughout  Germany 
for  which  it  was  proposed  that  no  compensation 
should  be  given.  The  government  bill  also  con- 
tained certain  curious  "jokers";  for  instance,  it 
provided  for  the  taking  over  of  all  plants 
"within  the  customs  limit  of  the  German  Em- 
pire," thus  leaving  out  of  the  compensation  a  re- 
finery which  was  situated  in  the  free  part  of 
Hamburg,  although,  of  course,  by  operation  of 
this  monopoly  bill  the  refinery  was  rendered  use- 

62 


.  . 

mvitf    i  tiv  A<>Vjf#t.' 


r 


PROGRAMME    OF    T 11 K     MUSIC    AFTER    DINNER    WITH     THE     KAISER 
AT   THE   ROYAL    PALACE,   BERLIN 


DIPLOMATIC  WORK  OF  FIRST  WINTER 

less  to  the  American  controlled  company  which 
owned  it. 

In  the  course  of  this  investigation  it  came  to 
light  that  the  Prussian  state  railways  were  used 
as  a  means  of  discriminating  against  the  Amer- 
ican oil.  American  oil  came  to  Germany  through 
the  port  of  Hamburg,  and  the  Galician  and  Rou- 
manian oil  through  the  frontier  town  of  Oder- 
berg.  Taking  a  delivery  point  equally  distant 
between  Oderberg  and  Hamburg,  the  rate 
charged  on  oil  from  Hamburg  to  this  point  was 
twice  as  great  as  that  charged  for  a  similar  quan- 
tity of  oil  from  Oderberg. 

I  took  up  this  fight  on  the  line  that  the  com- 
pany must  be  compensated  for  all  of  its  prop- 
erty, that  used  in  retail  as  well  as  in  wholesale 
business,  and,  second,  that  it  must  be  compensated 
for  the  good-will  of  its  business,  which  it  had  built 
up  through  a  number  of  years  by  the  expendi- 
ture of  very  large  sums  of  money.  Of  course 
where  a  company  has  been  in  operation  for  years 
and  is  continually  advertising  its  business,  its 
good-will  often  is  its  greatest  asset  and  has  often 
been  built  up  by  the  greatest  expenditure  of 
money.  For  instance,  in  buying  a  successful 
newspaper,  the  value  does  not  lie  in  the  real- 
estate,  presses,  etc.,  but  in  the  good-will  of  the 
newspaper,  the  result  of  years  of  work  and  ex- 
pensive advertising. 

63 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

I  made  no  objection  that  the  German  govern- 
ment did  not  have  a  perfect  right  to  create  this 
Monopoly  and  to  put  the  American  controlled 
company  entirely  out  of  the  field,  but  insisted 
upon  a  fair  compensation  for  all  their  property 
and  good-will.  Even  a  fair  compensation  for  the 
property  and  good-will  would  have  started 
the  government  monopoly  company  with  a  large 
debt  upon  which  it  would  have  been  required  to 
pay  interest,  and  this  interest,  of  course,  would 
have  been  added  to  the  cost  of  oil  to  the  German 
consumers.  In  my  final  conversation  on  the  sub- 
ject with  the  Chancellor,  he  said,  "You  don't 
mean  to  say  that  President  Wilson  and  Secretary 
Bryan  will  do  anything  for  the  Standard  Oil 
Company?''  I  answered  that  every  one  in  Amer- 
ica knew  that  the  Standard  Oil  Company  had 
neither  influence  with  nor  control  over  President 
Wilson  and  Secretary  Bryan,  but  that  they  both 
could  and  would  give  the  Standard  Oil  Company 
the  same  measure  of  protection  which  any  Amer- 
ican citizen  doing  business  abroad  had  a  right  to 
expect  from  his  government.  I  also  said  that 
I  thought  they  had  done  enough  for  the  Germans 
interested  in  the  Galician  and  Roumanian  oil 
fields  when  they  had  used  the  Prussian  state  rail- 
ways to  give  these  oil  producers  an  unfair  ad- 
vantage over  those  importing  American  oil. 

Shortly  after  this  the  question  of  the  creation 
64 


DIPLOMATIC  WORK  OF  FIRST  WINTER 

of  this  oil  monopoly  was  dropped  and  naturally 
has  not  been  revived  during  the  war,  and  I  very 
much  doubt  whether,  after  the  war,  the  people 
of  liberalised  Germany  will  consent  to  pay  more 
for  inferior  oil  in  order  to  make  good  the  in- 
vestments of  certain  German  banks  and  finan- 
ciers in  Galicia  and  Roumania.  I  doubt  whether 
a  more  liberal  Germany  will  wish  to  put  the  con- 
trol of  a  great  business  in  the  hands  of  the  gov- 
ernment, thereby  greatly  increasing  the  number 
of  government  officials  and  the  weight  of  gov- 
ernment influence  in  the  country.  Heaven  knows 
there  are  officials  enough  to-day  in  Germany, 
without  turning  over  a  great  department  of  pri- 
vate industry  to  the  government  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  making  good  bad  investments  of  certain 
financiers  and  adding  to  the  political  influence  of 
the  central  government. 

In  May,  1914,  Colonel  House  and  his  beautiful 
wife  arrived  to  pay  us  a  visit  in  Berlin.  He  was, 
of  course,  anxious  to  have  a  talk  with  the  Em- 
peror, and  this  was  arranged  by  the  Emperor 
inviting  the  Colonel  and  me  to  what  is  called 
the  Schrip  pen  jest,  at  the  new  palace  at  Pots- 
dam. 

For  many  years,  in  fact  since  the  days  of  Fred- 
erick the  Great,  the  learning  (Lehr)  battalion, 
composed  of  picked  soldiers  from  all  the  regi- 
ments of  Prussia,  has  been  quartered  at  Pots- 

65 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

dam,  and  on  a  certain  day  in  April  this  battalion 
has  been  given  a  dinner  at  which  they  eat  white 
rolls  (Schrippen)  instead  of  the  usual  black 
bread.  This  feast  has  been  carried  on  from  these 
older  days  and  has  become  quite  a  ceremony. 

The  Colonel  and  I  motored  to  Potsdam,  ar- 
rayed in  dress-suits,  and  waited  in  one  of  the 
salons  of  the  ground  floor  of  the  new  palace. 
Finally  the  Emperor  and  the  Empress  and  sev- 
eral of  the  Princes  and  their  wives  and  the  usual 
dignitaries  of  the  Emperor's  household  arrived. 
The  Colonel  was  presented  to  the  royalties  and 
then  a  Divine  Service  was  held  in  the  open  air 
at  one  end  of  the  palace.  The  Empress  and 
Princesses  occupied  large  chairs  and  the  Emperor 
stood  with  his  sons  behind  him  and  then  the  vari- 
ous dignitaries  of  the  court.  The  Lehr  Battalion 
was  drawn  up  behind.  There  were  a  large  band 
and  the  choir  boys  from  the  Berlin  cathedral. 
The  service  was  very  impressive  and  not  less  so 
because  of  a  great  Zeppelin  which  hovered  over 
our  heads  during  the  whole  of  the  service. 

After  Divine  Service,  the  Lehr  Battalion 
marched  in  review  and  then  was  given  food  and 
beer  in  long  arbours  constructed  in  front  of  the 
palace.  While  the  men  were  eating,  the  Emperor 
and  Empress  and  Princes  passed  among  the  ta- 
bles, speaking  to  the  soldiers.  We  then  went  to 
the  new  palace  where  in  the  extraordinary  hall 

66 


DIPLOMATIC  WORK  OF  FIRST  WINTER 

studded  with  curious  specimens  of  minerals  from 
all  countries,  a  long  table  forming  three  sides  of 
a  square  was  set  for  about  sixty  people.  Colonel 
House  and  I  sat  directly  across  the  table  from 
the  Emperor,  with  General  Falkenhayn  between 
us.  The  Emperor  was  in  a  very  good  mood  and  at 
one  time,  talking  across  the  table,  said  to  me  that 
the  Colonel  and  I,  in  our  black  dress-suits,  looked 
like  a  couple  of  crows,  that  we  were  like  two  un- 
dertakers at  a  feast  and  spoiled  the  picture. 
After  luncheon  the  Emperor  had  a  long  talk  with 
Colonel  House,  and  then  called  me  into  the  con- 
versation. 

On  May  twenty-sixth,  I  arranged  that  the  Col- 
onel should  meet  von  Tirpitz  at  dinner  in  our 
house.  We  did  not  guess  then  what  a  central  fig- 
ure in  this  war  the  great  admiral  was  going  to 
be.  At  that  time  and  until  his  fall,  he  was  Min- 
ister of  Marine,  which  corresponds  to  our  Secre- 
tary of  the  Navy  Department,  and  what  is  called 
in  German  Reichsmarineamt.  The  Colonel  also 
met  the  Chancellor,  von  Jagow,  Zimmermann 
and  many  others. 

There  are  two  other  heads  of  departments,  con- 
nected with  the  navy,  of  equal  rank  with  the 
Secretary  of  the  Naval  Department  and  not  re- 
porting to  him.  These  are  the  heads  of  the  naval 
staff  and  the  head  of  what  is  known  as  the  Ma- 
rine Cabinet.  The  head  of  the  naval  staff  is 

67 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

supposed  to  direct  the  actual  operations  of  war- 
fare in  the  navy,  and  the  head  of  the  Marine 
Cabinet  is  charged  with  the  personnel  of  the 
navy,  with  determining  what  officers  are  to  be 
promoted  and  what  officers  are  to  take  over  ships 
or  commands. 

While  von  Tirpitz  was  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
by  the  force  of  his  personality,  he  dominated  the 
two  other  departments,  but  since  his  fall  the 
heads  of  these  two  other  departments  have  held 
positions  as  important,  if  not  more  important, 
than  that  of  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

On  May  thirty-first,  we  took  Colonel  and  Mrs. 
House  to  the  aviation  field  of  Joachimsthal.  Here 
the  Dutch  aviator  Fokker  was  flying  and  after  be- 
ing introduced  to  us  he  did  some  stunts  for  our 
benefit.  Fokker  was  employed  by  the  German 
army  and  later  became  a  naturalised  German. 
The  machines  designed  by  him,  and  named  after 
him,  for  a  long  time  held  the  mastery  of  the  air 
on  the  West  front. 

The  advice  of  Colonel  House,  a  most  wise  and 
prudent  counsellor,  was  at  all  times  of  the  great- 
est value  to  me  during  my  stay  in  Berlin.  We 
exchanged  letters  weekly,  I  sending  him  a  weekly 
bulletin  of  the  situation  in  Berlin  and  much  news 
and  gossip  too  personal  or  too  indefinite  to  be 
placed  in  official  reports. 

War  with  Germany  seemed  a  thing  not  even 

68 


DIPLOMATIC  WORK  OF  FIRST  WINTER 

to  be  considered  when  in  this  month  of  May, 
1914,  I  called  on  the  Foreign  Office,  by  direc- 
tion, to  thank  the  Imperial  Government  for  the 
aid  given  the  Americans  at  Tampico  by  German 
ships  of  war. 

Early  in  February,  Mr.  S.  Bergmann,  a  Ger- 
man who  had  made  a  fortune  in  America  and 
who  had  returned  to  Germany  to  take  up  again 
his  German  citizenship,  invited  me  to  go  over 
the  great  electrical  works  which  he  had  estab- 
lished. Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  the  brother 
of  the  Emperor,  was  the  only  other  guest  and 
together  we  inspected  the  vast  works,  afterwards 
having  lunch  in  Mr.  Bergmann's  office.  Prince 
Henry  has  always  been  interested  in  America 
since  his  visit  here.  On  that  visit  he  spent  most 
of  his  time  with  German  societies,  etc.  Of  course, 
now  we  know  he  came  as  a  propagandist  with 
the  object  of  welding  together  the  Germans  in 
America  and  keeping  up  their  interest  in  the 
Fatherland.  He  made  a  similar  trip  to  the  Ar- 
gentine just  before  the  Great  War,  with  a  similar 
purpose,  but  I  understand  his  excursion  was  not 
considered  a  great  success,  from  any  standpoint. 
A  man  of  affable  manners,  no  one  is  better  quali- 
fied to  go  abroad  as  a  German  propagandist  than 
he.  If  all  Germans  had  been  like  him  there  would 
have  been  no  World  War  in  1914. 

On  March  eighteenth,  we  were  invited  to  a 
69 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

fancy-dress  ball  at  the  palace  of  the  Crown 
Prince.  The  guests  were  mostly  young  people 
and  officers.  The  Crown  Princess  wore  a  beau- 
tiful Russian  dress  with  its  characteristic  high 
front  piece  on  the  head.  The  Crown  Prince  and 
all  the  officers  present  were  in  the  picturesque 
uniforms  of  their  respective  regiments  of  a 
period  of  one  hundred  years  ago.  Prince  Oscar, 
the  fifth  son  of  the  Kaiser,  looked  particularly 
well. 

The  hours  for  balls  in  Berlin,  where  officers 
attended,  were  a  good  example  for  hostesses  in 
this  country.  The  invitations  read  for  eight 
o'clock  and  that  meant  eight  o'clock.  A  cold  din- 
ner of  perhaps  four  courses  is  immediately  served 
on  the  arrival  of  the  guests,  who,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  very  few  distinguished  ones,  are  not 
given  any  particular  places.  At  a  quarter  to  nine 
the  dancing  begins,  supper  is  at  about  eleven  and 
the  guests  go  home  at  twelve,  at  an  hour  which 
enables  the  officers  to  get  to  bed  early. 

During  the  season  there  were  balls  at  the  Brit- 
ish and  French  Embassy  and  performances  by 
the  Russian  Ballet,  then  in  Berlin,  at  the  Russian 
Embassy. 

The  wonderful  new  Royal  Library,  designed 
by  Ihne,  was  opened  on  March  twenty-second. 
The  Emperor  attended,  coming  in  with  the  beau- 
tiful Queen  of  Roumania  walking  by  his  side. 

70 


DIPLOMATIC  WORK  OF  FIRST  WINTER 

She  is  an  exceedingly  handsome  woman,  half 
English  and  half  Russian.  Some  days  later  I 
was  presented  to  her  at  a  reception  held  at  the 
Roumanian  Minister's  and  found  her  as  pleasant 
to  talk  to  as  good  to  look  upon. 

At  the  end  of  March  there  was  a  Horse  Show. 
The  horses  did  not  get  prizes  for  mere  looks  and 
manners  in  trotting  and  cantering,  as  here.  They 
must  all  do  something,  for  the  horse  is  consid- 
ered primarily  as  a  war  horse;  such,  for  instance, 
as  stopping  suddenly  and  turning  at  a  word  of 
command.  The  jumping  was  excellent,  officers 
riding  in  all  the  events.  It  was  not  a  function 
of  "society,"  but  all  "society"  was  there  and  most 
keenly  interested;  for  in  a  warlike  country,  just 
as  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the  master's  life  may  de- 
pend upon  the  qualities  of  his  horse. 

I  have  always  been  fond  of  horses  and  horse- 
racing,  and  the  race-tracks  about  Berlin  were  al- 
ways an  attraction  for  me. 

Many  of  the  drivers  and  jockeys  were  Amer- 
icans. Taral  was  a  successful  jockey  for  my 
father-in-law,  Marcus  Daly.  He  is  the  trainer 
of  one  of  the  best  racing  stables  in  Germany,  that 
of  the  brothers  Weinberg,  who  made  a  fortune 
in  dye-stuffs.  "Pop"  Campbell,  who  trained  Mr. 
Daly's  Ogden,  a  Futurity  winner,  is  also  a  Ber- 
lin trainer.  The  top  notch  jockey  was  Archibald 
of  California.  McCreery,  who  once  trained  for 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

one  of  my  brothers,  had  the  stable  which  rivalled 
the  Weinbergs',  that  of  Baron  Oppenheim,  a  rich 
banker  of  Cologne. 

The  German  officers  are  splendid  riders  and 
take  part  in  many  races.  The  Crown  Prince  him- 
self is  a  successful  jockey  and  racing  stable 
owner. 

On  June  fifth,  at  the  annual  hunt  race,  the  big 
steeplechase  of  the  year,  the  Emperor  himself 
appeared  at  the  Griinewald  track,  occupying  his 
private  box,  a  sort  of  little  house  beyond  the 
finish. 

Bookmakers  are  not  allowed  in  Germany.  The 
betting  is  in  mutual  pools.  About  seventeen  per 
cent  of  the  money  paid  is  taken  by  the  Jockey 
Club,  the  State  and  charities,  so  that  the  bet- 
tor, with  this  percentage  running  always  against' 
him,  has  little  chance  of  ultimate  success. 

Many  of  the  races  are  confined  to  horses  bred 
in  Denmark  and  the  Central  Empires. 

All  of  us  in  the  Embassy  joined  the  Red  White 
Tennis  Club  situated  in  the  Griinewald  about  five 
miles  from  the  centre  of  Berlin.  The  Crown 
Prince  was  a  member  and  often  played  there. 
He  is  an  excellent  player,  not  quite  up  to  cham- 
pionship form,  but  he  can  give  a  good  ac- 
count of  himself  in  any  company  short  of  the 
top  class.  He  has  the  advantage  of  always  find- 
ing that  the  best  players  are  only  too  glad  to 

72 


DIPLOMATIC  WORK  OF  FIRST  WINTER 

have  an  opportunity  to  play  with  him.  At  this 
Tennis  Club  during  all  the  period  of  the  feeling 
of  hatred  against  America  we  were  treated  with 
extreme  courtesy  by  all  our  German  fellow  mem- 
bers. 

We  saw  a  great  deal  of  the  two  exchange  pro- 
fessors in  the  winter  of  1913-14,  Professor  Paul 
Shorey  of  the  University  of  Chicago  and  Pro- 
fessor Archibald  Coolidge  of  Harvard.  These 
exchange  professors  give  courses  and  lectures 
in  the  universities  and  their  first  appearance  is 
quite  an  event.  On  this  first  day  in  1913,  they 
each  delivered  a  lecture  in  the  University  of  Ber- 
lin, and  on  this  lecture  day  Prince  August  Wil- 
helm,  representing  the  Kaiser,  attended.  The 
Kaiser  used  invariably  to  attend,  but  of  late  years 
I  am  afraid  has  rather  lost  interest  in  this  en- 
terprise at  first  so  much  favoured  by  him. 

The  Cologne  Gazette  at  one  time  after  the 
commencement  of  the  war,  in  an  article,  ex- 
pressed great  surprise  that  America  should  per- 
mit the  export  of  munitions  of  war  to  the  Allies 
and  said,  quite  seriously,  that  Germany  had  done 
everything  possible  to  win  the  favour  of  Amer- 
ica, that  Roosevelt  had  been  offered  a  review  of 
German  troops,  that  the  Emperor  had  invited 
Americans  who  came  to  Kiel  on  their  yachts  to 
dine  with  him,  and  that  he  had  even  sat  through 

73 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

the  lectures  given  by  American  exchange  pro- 
fessors. 

Before  the  war  there  was  but  one  cable  direct 
from  Germany  to  America.  This  cable  was 
owned  by  a  German  company  and  reached  Amer- 
ica via  the  Azore  Islands.  I  endeavoured  to  ob- 
tain permission  for  the  Western  Union  Company 
to  land  a  cable  in  Germany,  but  the  opposition 
of  the  German  company,  which  did  not  desire 
to  have  its  monopoly  interfered  with,  caused  the 
applications  of  the  Western  Union  to  be  defi- 
nitely pigeon-holed.  In  August,  1914,  after  the 
outbreak  of  the  war,  when  I  told  this  to  Ballin 
of  the  Hamburg  American  Line  and  von  Gwin- 
ner,  head  of  the  Deutsche  Bank,  and  when  they 
thought  of  how  much  they  could  have  saved  for 
themselves  and  Germany  and  their  companies 
if  there  had  been  an  American  owned  cable  land- 
ing in  Germany,  their  anger  at  the  delay  on  the 
part  of  official  Germany  knew  no  bounds.  Within 
a  very  short  time  I  received  an  answer  from  the 
Foreign  Office  granting  the  application  of  the 
Western  Union  Company,  providing  the  cable 
went  direct  to  America.  This  concession,  how- 
ever, came  too  late  and,  naturally,  the  Western 
Union  did  not  take  up  the  matter  during  the 
war. 


74 


CHAPTER  IV 

MILITARISM    IN  GERMANY  AND  THE}  ZAB^RN 
AFFAIR 

IN  1913-1914  occurred  a  series  of  events 
known  as  the  "Zabern  Affair,"  which  to  my 
mind  decided  the  "system" — the  military  autoc- 
racy— for  a  speedy  war.  In  this  affair  the  Ger- 
man people  appeared  at  last  to  be  opening  their 
eyes,  to  recover  in  some  degree  from  the  panic 
fear  of  their  neighbours  which  had  made  them 
submit  to  the  arrogance  and  exactions  of  the 
military  caste  and  to  be  almost  ready  to  demili- 
tarise themselves,  a  thing  abhorrent  to  the  up- 
holders of  caste,  the  system,  the  army  and  the 
Hohenzollerns. 

This  writing  on  the  wall — these  letters  form- 
ing the  word  "Zabern" — the  actions  of  the  Social 
Democrats  and  their  growing  boldness,  all  were 
warnings  to  the  autocracy  of  its  waning  power, 
and  impelled  that  autocracy  towards  war  as  a 
bloodletting  cure  for  popular  discontent. 

Prussia,  which  has  imposed  its  will,  as  well  as 
its  methods  of  thought  and  life  on  all  the  rest 
of  Germany,  is  undoubtedly  a  military  nation. 

75  ' 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

More  than  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years 
ago  Mirabeau,  the  great  French  orator  at  the 
commencement  of  the  Revolution,  said,  "War  is 
the  national  industry  of  Prussia."  Later,  Napo- 
leon remarked  that  Prussia  "was  hatched  from 
a  cannon  ball,"  and  shortly  before  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war  of  1870  the  French  military 
attache,  in  reporting  to  his  government,  wrote 
that  "other  countries  possessed  an  army,  but  in 
Prussia  the  army  possessed  the  country." 

In  practice  the  class  of  nobles  in  Prussia  owns 
the  army.  Officers  may  enter  the  army  in  two 
ways,  either  by  enlisting  in  the  regiment,  first  as 
private  and  then  being  rapidly  promoted  to  the 
position  of  non-commissioned  officer,  and  then 
probationary  ensign,  or  avantageur;  or  the 
young  aspirant  may  come  directly  from  a  two 
years'  course  in  one  of  the  cadet  schools  and  en- 
ter the  regiment  as  probationary  ensign.  In 
both  cases  the  young  officer  is  observed  by  the 
officers  during  a  period  of  probation  and  can  be- 
come an  officer  of  that  regiment  only  by  the  con- 
sent of  the  regimental  officers.  In  other  words, 
each  regiment  is  like  a  club,  the  officers  having 
the  right  of  black-ball. 

This  system  has  practically  confined  the  pro- 
fessional officers  to  a  class  of  nobles.  It  is  not 
at  all  unusual  to  find  in  a  regiment  officers  whose 

76 


MILITARISM  AND  THE  ZABERN  AFFAIR     > 

ancestors  were  officers  of  the  same  regiment  two 
hundred  years  or  more  ago. 

In  addition  to  these  officers  who  make  the  army 
their  career,  a  certain  number  of  Germans,  after 
undergoing  an  enlistment  in  the  army  of  one 
year  and  two  periods  of  training  thereafter,  are 
made  reserve  officers.  These  reserve  officers  are 
called  to  the  colours  for  manoeuvres  and  also,  of 
course,  when  the  whole  nation  is  arrayed  in  war. 
These  reserve  officers  seldom  attain  a  rank  higher 
than  that  of  captain.  They  may,  however,  while 
exercising  civil  functions,  be  promoted,  and  in 
this  manner  the  Chancellor,  while  occupying  civil 
positions,  has  gradually  been  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  General  and  von  Jagow,  during  the  war, 
to  the  rank  of  Major.  As  a  rule  reserve  officers 
are  the  one-yearers,  or  Einj'dhriger,  who,  be- 
cause they  have  attained  a  certain  standard  of 
education,  serve  only  one  year  with  the  army 
instead  of  the  two  required  from  others.  The 
Bavarian  army  is  in  a  sense  independent  of  Prus- 
sia, but  is  modelled  on  the  same  system. 

For  years  officers  of  the  army,,  both  in  the  dis- 
charge of  their  duties  and  outside,  have  behaved 
in  a  very  arrogant  way  toward  the  civil  popula- 
tion. Time  and  again,  while  I  was  in  Germany 
waiting  in  line  at  some  ticket  office,  an  officer  has 
shoved  himself  ahead  of  all  others  without  even 
a  protest  from  those  waiting.  On  one  occasion, 

77 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

I  went  to  the  races  in  Berlin  with  my  brother-in- 
law  and  bought  a  box.  While  we  were  out  look- 
ing at  the  horses  between  the  races,  a  Prussian 
officer  and  his  wife  seated  themselves  in  our  box. 
I  called  the  attention  of  one  of  the  ushers  to  this, 
but  the  usher  said  that  he  did  not  dare  ask  a 
Prussian  officer  to  leave,  and  it  was  only  after 
sending  for  the  head  usher  and  showing  him  my 
Jockey  Club  badge  and  my  pass  as  Ambassador, 
that  I  was  able  to  secure  possession  of  my  own 
box. 

There  have  been  many  instances  in  Germany 
where  officers  having  a  slight  dispute  with  ci- 
vilians have  instantly  cut  the  civilian  down.  In- 
stances of  this  kind  and  the  harsh  treatment  of 
the  Germans  by  officers  and  under-officers,  while 
serving  in  the  army,  undoubtedly  created  in  Ger- 
many a  spirit  of  antagonism  not  only  to  the  army 
itself  but  to  the  whole  military  system  of  Prus- 
sia. Affairs  were  brought  to  a  head  by  the  so- 
called  Zabern  Affair.  In  this  affair  the  internal 
antagonism  between  the  civil  population  and  pro- 
fessional soldiers,  which  had  assumed  great  pro- 
portions in  a  period  of  long  peace,  seemed  to 
reach  its  climax.  Of  course  this  antagonism  had 
increased  with  the  increase  in  1913-14  of  the  ef- 
fective strength  of  the  standing  army,  bringing 
a  material  increase  in  the  numbers  of  officers  and 

78 


MILITARISM  AND  THE  ZABERN  AFFAIR 

non-commissioned  officers  who  represent  military 
professionalism. 

The  Imperial  Provinces  or  Reichsland,  as  Al- 
sace and  Lorraine  are  called,  had  been  in  a  pe- 
culiar position  within  the  body  politic  of  Germany 
since  their  annexation  in  1870.  The  Reichsland, 
as  indicated  by  its  name,  was  to  be  considered  as 
common  property  of  the  German  Empire  and  was 
not  annexed  to  any  one  German  State.  Its  gov- 
ernment is  by  an  Imperial  Viceroy,  with  a  kind 
of  cabinet  consisting  of  one  Secretary  of  State, 
Civil  and  Under  Secretaries  and  Department 
heads,  assisted  by  a  legislative  body  of  two  cham- 
bers, one  elected  by  popular  vote  and  the  other 
consisting  of  members  partly  elected  by  munic- 
ipal bodies,  universities,  churches  and  so  forth, 
and  partly  appointed  by  the  Imperial  Govern- 
ment. The  Viceroy  and  his  cabinet  are  appointed 
by  the  Emperor  in  his  capacity  of  the  sovereign 
of  the  Reichsland.  Until  the  thirty-first  of  May, 
1911,  the  Reichsland  had  no  constitution  of  its 
own,  the  form  of  its  government  being  regulated 
by  the  Reichstag  and  Federal  Council  (Bundes- 
rat)  in  about  the  same  way  as  the  territories  of 
the  United  States  are  ruled  by  Congress  and  the 
President.  In  1911,  Alsace-Lorraine  received  a 
constitution  which  gave  it  representation  in  the 
Federal  Council,  representation  in  the  Reichstag 
having  already  been  granted  as  early  as  1871. 

79 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

The  sympathy  of  Alsace-Lorraine  for  France 
had  been  increased  by  the  policy  of  several  of  the 
German  viceroys, — von  Manteuffel,  Prince  Ho- 
henlohe,  Prince  Minister  and  Count  Wedel,  who 
had,  in  their  administrations,  alternated  severe 
measures  with  great  leniency  and  had  not  im- 
proved conditions,  so  that  the  population,  es- 
sentially South  German,  was  undoubtedly  irri- 
tated by  the  tone  and  manner  of  the  North  Ger- 
man officials. 

Great  industries  had  been  developed  by  the  Im- 
perial Government,  especially  textile  and  coal 
mining,  and  the  industrial  population  centering 
in  Miilhausen  was  hotly  and  thoroughly  Social 
Democratic.  The  upper  or  well-to-do  classes 
were  tied  to  France  by  family  connections  and 
by  religion.  The  bourgeois  remained  mildly  anti- 
German,  more  properly  speaking,  ami-govern- 
ment, for  similar  reasons,  and  the  working  men 
\vere  opposed  to  the  government  on  social  and 
economic  grounds.  The  farming  population,  not 
troubling  much  about  the  politics,  but  being  af- 
fected by  the  campaign  of  the  nationalistic  press, 
were  in  sympathy  with  France;  so  the  atmos- 
phere was  well  prepared  for  the  coming  storm. 

Zabern,  or  in  French,  Saverne,  is  a  little  town 
of  between  eight  and  nine  thousand  inhabitants, 
beautifully  situated  at  the  foot  of  the  Vosges 
Mountains  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine-Marne 

80 


MILITARISM  AND  THE  ZABERN  AFFAIR 

Canal.  Its  garrison  comprised  the  staff  and  two 
battalions  of  Infantry  Regiment,  Number  Ninety- 
nine,  commanded  by  von  Reuter,  and  among  its 
officers  was  a  Lieutenant  von  Forstner,  a  young 
man  only  twenty  years  old,  whose  boyish  appear- 
ance had  excited  the  school  children  and  boys 
working  in  nearby  iron  factories  to  ridicule  him. 
It  became  known  that  this  young  officer,  while 
instructing  his  men,  had  insulted  the  French  flag 
and  had  called  the  Alsatian  recruits  Wackes, 
a  nick-name  meaning  "square-head,"  and  fre- 
quently used  by  the  people  of  Alsace-Lorraine 
in  a  jocular  way,  but  hotly  resented  by  them  if 
used  towards  them  by  others.  It  was  further 
reported  that  he  had  promised  his  men  a  reward 
of  ten  marks  if  one  of  them,  in  case  of  trouble, 
should  bring  down  a  Social  Democrat.  Forstner 
had  told  his  men  to  beware,  and  warned  them 
against  listening  to  French  foreign  agents,  whom 
the  Germans  claimed  were  inducing  French  sol- 
diers to  desert  in  order  to  join  the  French  legion. 
It  is  probable  that  Forstner,  in  talking  to  his  men 
of  the  French  Foreign  Legion,  used  language  of- 
fensive to  French  ears.  He  admitted  that  he  had 
used  the  word  Wackes  in  defiance  of  an  order 
of  the  commanding  general,  and  for  this  he  had 
been  punished  with  several  days'  confinement  in 
a  military  prison.  Lieutenant  von  Forstner,  who 
was  ordered  to  instruct  his  squad  about  the  regu- 

81 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

lations  in  case  of  trouble  with  the  civil  population, 
claimed  that  he  had  only  added  to  the  usual  in- 
structions a  statement  that  every  true  soldier 
should  do  his  best  to  suppress  any  disturbances 
and  that  he,  Forstner,  would  give  a  special  re- 
ward to  any  of  his  men  who  would  arrest  one  of 
"those  damned  Social  Democrats." 

Reports  of  the  acts  of  Forstner  and  other  offi- 
cers were  rapidly  spread  among  the  population. 
The  two  newspapers  of  Zabern  published  arti- 
cles. The  excitement  grew,  and  there  were 
demonstrations  against  the  officials  and  especially 
against  Forstner.  Finally,  conditions  became  so 
bad  that  Colonel  von  Reuter  requested  the  head 
of  the  local  civil  administration,  Director  Mah- 
ler, to  restore  order,  stating  that  he  would  take 
the  matter  into  his  own  hands  if  order  was  not 
restored.  The  director,  a  native  of  a  small  vil- 
lage near  Zabern,  replied  coolly  that  he  saw  no 
necessity  for  interfering  with  peace  loving  and 
law  abiding  people.  On  November  twenty-ninth, 
1913,  a  large  crowd  assembled  in  front  of  the 
barracks.  Colonel  von  Reuter  ordered  Lieuten- 
ant Schad,  commanding  the  Guard  as  officer  of 
the  day,  to  disperse  the  crowd.  Accordingly 
Lieutenant  Schad  called  the  Guard  to  arms  and 
three  times  summoned  the  crowd  to  disperse  and 
go  home.  The  soldiers  charged  and  drove  the 
multitude  across  the  Square  and  into  a  side  street 

82 


MILITARISM  AND  THE  ZABERN  AFFAIR 

and  arrested  about  fifteen  persons,  among  them 
the  President,  two  Judges  and  the  State  Attorney 
of  the  Zabern  Supreme  Court,  who  had  just  come 
out  from  the  court  building  and  who  were  caught 
in  the  crowd.  They  were  subsequently  released. 
The  rest  of  the  persons  arrested  were  kept  in  the 
cellar  of  the  barracks  over  night. 

The  report  of  these  occurrences  caused  im- 
mense excitement  throughout  Germany.  A  great 
outcry  went  up  against  militarism,  even  in  quar- 
ters where  no  socialistic  tendencies  existed.  This 
feeling  was  not  helped  by  the  fact  that  the  Gen- 
eral commanding  the  fifteenth  army  to  which  the 
Zabern  regiment  belonged  was  an  exponent  of 
extreme  militaristic  ideas;  a  man,  who  several 
years  before,  as  Colonel  of  the  Colonial  troops, 
representing  the  war  ministry  before  the  Reichs- 
tag and  debating  there  the  question  of  the  num- 
ber of  troops  to  be  kept  in  German  South  West 
Africa,  had  most  clearly  shown  his  contempt  for 
the  Reichstag. 

Colonel  von  Reuter  and  Lieutenant  Schad, 
when  court-martialled  for  their  acts  in  ordering 
the  troops  to  move  against  the  civil  population, 
claimed  the  benefit  of  a  Prussian  law  of  1820, 
which  provided  that  in  any  city,  town  or  village, 
the  highest  military  officer  in  command  must  as- 
sume the  authority,  usually  vested  in  the  civil 
government,  whenever  for  any  reason  the  civil 

83 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

administration  neglects  to  keep  order.  The  Colo- 
nel and  Lieutenant  were  subsequently  acquitted 
on  the  ground  that  they  had  acted  under  the  pro- 
visions of  this  law. 

The  excitement  throughout  Germany  was  fur- 
ther increased  by  other  circumstances.  The  Em- 
peror remained  during  these  critical  days  at 
Donaueschingen,  the  princely  estate  of  his  friend 
and  favourite,  Prince  Fiirstenberg,  enjoying  him- 
self with  fox-hunting,  torch-light  processions 
and  cabaret  performances.  Of  course,  all  this 
had  been  arranged  long  before  any  one  dreamed 
of  any  trouble  in  Zabern,  and  the  Emperor  could 
scarcely  be  expected  to  realise  the  gravity  of  the 
situation  which  suddenly  arose.  But  this  very 
fact  created  a  bad  impression.  It  was  even  ru- 
moured that  the  Empress,  alarmed  by  the  situa- 
tion, had  ordered  a  train  to  be  made  ready  in 
order  to  go  to  him  and  try  to  convince  him  of 
the  necessity  of  returning  to  Berlin. 

The  newly  appointed  minister  of  war,  Falken- 
hayn,  went  to  Donaueschingen,  where  he  was 
joined  by  von  Deimling.  This  action  aggravated 
the  situation,  because  the  public  concluded  that 
the  Emperor  would  hear  the  advice  and  report  of 
military  officers  only.  The  sudden  death,  by 
heart  failure,  of  the  Emperor's  closest  friend, 
von  Hulsen,  chief  of  the  Emperor's  Military  Cab- 
inet, during  a  banquet  at  Donaueschingen,  gave 

84 


THE    GLORY    WHICH    IS    POTSDAM.      SUMMER    RESIDENCE    OF    THE    KAISER 
IN    THE   PARK   OF   SANS    SOUCI 


DEMONSTRATION   OF    SYMPATHY   FOR  THE   AMERICANS,    AT   THE 
TOWN    HALL,   AUGUST,    IQI4    (PAGE    145) 


MILITARISM  AND  THE  ZABERN  AFFAIR 

the  rapidly  developing  events  a  tragic  and  mys- 
terious colouring,  and  these  conferences  in  Don- 
aueschingen  resulted  in  the  tendering  of  their 
resignations  by  the  Viceroy,  von  Wedel,  and  Sec- 
retary of  State  Zorn  von  Bulach,  Viceroy  and  Sec- 
retary of  State  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  who  felt  that 
the  military  party  had  gained  an  upper  hand 
in  the  conflict  with  the  civil  authorities.  The 
Chancellor  then  hurried  to  Donaueschingen,  ar- 
riving a  few  hours  before  the  departure  of  the 
Emperor ;  and  a  subsequent  order  of  the  Emperor 
to  General  von  Deimling  to  see  to  it  that  the  mili- 
tary officers  did  not  overstep  their  authority  and 
directing  him  to  investigate  the  occurrences  and 
take  measures  to  punish  all  guilty  parties,  some- 
what quieted  the  nation  and  caused  the  two 
highest  civil  officials  of  Alsace-Lorraine  to  with- 
draw their  resignations. 

Zabern,  where  a  brigadier-general  had  been 
sent  by  von  Deimling  to  restore  civil  government, 
had  begun  to  quiet  down.  But  the  Chancellor 
had  hardly  returned  to  Berlin  when  another  inci- 
dent stirred  Germany.  While  practising  field 
service  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Zabern  and 
marching  through  a  village,  Lieutenant  von 
Forstner  had  an  altercation  with  a  lame  shoe- 
maker and  cut  him  down.  This  brutal  act  of 
militarism  caused  a  new  outburst  throughout 
Germany.  Forstner  was  tried  by  a  court-martial 

85 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

for  hitting  and  wounding  an  unarmed  civilian, 
and  sentenced  by  the  lower  court  to  one  year's 
imprisonment,  but  acquitted  by  the  higher  court 
as  having  acted  in  "supposed  self-defence." 

No  less  than  three  parties,  the  Centrum,  the 
Progressives  and  the  Social  Democrats,  addressed 
interpellations  to  the  Chancellor  about  this  oc- 
currence at  Zabern.  I  was  present  at  the  debate 
in  the  Reichstag,  which  took  place  on  the  fourth, 
fifth  and  sixth  of  December,  1913.  Three  South 
Germans,  a  member  of  the  Centrum,  Hauss,  a 
Progressive  named  Roser,  and  the  Socialist 
deputy  from  Miilhausen  in  Alsace,  Peirotes,  com- 
menced by  moving  and  seconding  the  interpella- 
tion and  related  in  vehement  language  the  occur- 
rences at  Zabern.  The  Chancellor  replied  in  de- 
fence of  the  government.  Unfortunately  he  had 
that  morning  received  family  news  of  a  most  un- 
pleasant character,  which  added  to  his  nervous- 
ness. He  spoke  with  a  low  voice  and  looked  like 
a  downhearted  and  sick  man.  It  was  whispered 
afterwards  in  the  lobbies  that  he  had  forgotten 
the  most  important  part  of  his  speech.  The  un- 
favourable impression  which  he  made  was  in- 
creased by  von  Falkenhayn,  appearing  for  the 
first  time  before  the  Reichstag.  If  the  Reichstag 
members  had  been  disappointed  by  the  Chan- 
cellor, they  were  stirred  to  the  highest  pitch  of 
bitterness  by  the  speech  of  the  War  Minister.  In 

86 


MILITARISM  AND  THE  ZABERN  AFFAIR 

a  sharp,  commanding  voice  he  told  them  that  the 
military  officers  had  only  done  their  duty,  that 
they  would  not  be  swerved  from  their  path  by 
press  agents  or  hysterical  individuals,  that  Forst- 
ner  was  a  very  young  officer  who  had  been  se- 
verely punished,  but  that  this  kind  of  courageous 
young  officer  was  the  kind  that  the  country 
needed,  etc.  Immediately  after  this  speech  the 
Progressive  party  moved  that  the  attitude  of  the 
Chancellor  did  not  meet  the  approval  of  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  people,  and  it  became  evident 
that,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  Ger- 
man Empire,  a  vote  of  censure  directed  against 
the  government  would  be  debated.  The  debate 
was  continued  all  the  next  day,  the  Chancellor 
making  another  speech  and  saying  what  he  prob- 
ably had  intended  to  say  the  day  before.  He  re- 
lated what  he  had  achieved  at  Donaueschingen ; 
that  the  Emperor  had  issued  a  cabinet  order 
saying  that  the  military  authorities  should  be 
kept  within  legal  bounds,  that  all  the  guilty  per- 
sons would  be  punished,  that  the  Regiment,  Num- 
ber Ninety-nine,  had  been  removed  from  Zabern, 
that  the  absolute  law  of  1820  had  been  abolished 
for  Alsace-Lorraine,  and  that  no  Chancellor 
should  for  one  moment  tolerate  disregard  of  law 
by  any  government  officials,  civil  or  military,  and 
remain  in  his  position. 

This  second  speech  of  the  Chancellor  made  a 

87 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

better  impression  and  somewhat  affected  the 
more  extreme  members  of  the  Reichstag,  but  it 
came  too  late  to  prevent  the  passage  of  the  vote 
df  censure  by  the  remarkable  majority  of  two 
hundred  and  ninety-three  to  fifty- four.  Only  the 
Conservatives  voted  against  it.  A  few  days  later, 
when  the  Social  Democrats  demanded  that  the 
Chancellor  take  the  consequence  of  the  vote  of 
distrust  and  resign,  the  attitude  of  the  members 
of  all  the  other  parties,  who  had  been  favourably 
impressed  by  the  second  speech  of  the  Chancellor, 
showed  that  they  were  not  yet  prepared  to  go  the 
length  of  holding  that  a  vote  of  distrust  in  the 
Reichstag  must  necessarily  mean  the  resignation 
of  the  Chancellor. 

Public  excitement  gradually  calmed  down,  and 
a  complete  change  of  the  officials  at  Zabern 
helped  to  bring  about  a  normal  condition  of  af- 
fairs. The  Viceroy,  Count  Wedel,  and  Secre- 
tary of  State  Zorn  von  Bulach,  resigned  and 
were  replaced  by  von  Dallwitz  and  Count  Rodern. 

However,  the  everlasting  question  came  up 
again  a  little  later  during  the  regular  budget  de- 
bate of  the  Reichstag.  The  Chancellor  made  his 
speech,  giving  a  review  of  the  political  interna- 
tional situation.  He  was  followed  by  Herr 
Scheidemann,  leader  of  the  Social  Democrats, 
who  mercilessly  attacked  the  Chancellor  and 
stated  that  if  the  Chancellor  still  thought  that  he 

88 


MILITARISM  AND  THE  ZABERN  AFFAIR 

was  the  right  man  at  the  helm,  he,  Scheidemann, 
would  show  that  the  contrary  was  the  case.  He 
then  enumerated  what  he  called  the  many  politi- 
cal failures  of  the  Chancellor,  the  failure  of  the 
bill  to  amend  the  Prussian  franchise  law,  and 
stated  that  the  few  bills  which  had  been  passed, 
such  as  the  bill  giving  Alsace-Lorraine  a  real 
constitution,  had  been  carried  only  with  the  help 
of  the  Social  Democratic  party.  The  speaker 
then  once  more  rehashed  the  incidents  of  the  Za- 
bern  matter,  referred  to  the  attitude  of  the  Em- 
peror, who,  he  said,  had  evidently  been  too  busy 
with  hunting  and  festivities  to  devote  time  to  such 
trivial  matters  as  the  Zabern  Affair,  and  also  said 
that,  if  the  Chancellor  had  refused  to  withdraw, 
the  only  possible  conclusion  from  the  vote  of  the 
two  hundred  and  ninety-three  Reichstag  mem- 
bers, who  were  certainly  not  influenced  by  per- 
sonal feelings  against  the  Chancellor,  was  that 
the  Chancellor  must  be  sticking  to  his  post  only 
because  of  the  mistaken  idea  of  the  Emperor's 
authority  and  because  he  must  believe  in  the 
fetish  of  personal  government.  Scheidemann 
begged  that  the  same  majority  which  had  passed 
the  vote  of  censure  should  now  follow  it  up  by 
voting  down  the  Chancellor's  salary  and  thus 
force  him  out  of  office. 

The   Chancellor    immediately    replied,    saying 
that  he  needed  no  advice  from  Herr  Scheidemann, 

89 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

and  that  when  the  government  had  consented 
to  change  the  rules  of  the  Reichstag  he  had 
expressly  reserved  the  authority  either  to  re- 
gard or  disregard  any  resolution  passed  after 
an  interpellation,  and  that  formerly,  after  dis- 
cussing an  interpellation  and  the  answer  of 
the  government,  no  vote  could  be  taken  to 
approve  or  reject  a  resolution  expressing  its  opin- 
ion of  such  course  of  action.  Such  resolutions 
might  be  considered  as  valuable  material,  but  it 
had  been  agreed  that  they  could  have  no  binding 
effect  either  upon  the  government  or  any  member 
of  it,  and  that  nobody  had  ever  dreamed  that  by 
a  mere  change  of  business  rules  the  whole  con- 
stitution of  the  Empire  was  being  changed  and 
authority  given  to  the  Reichstag  to  dismiss  min- 
isters at  will;  that  in  France  and  England  con- 
ditions were  different,  but  that  parliamentary 
government  did  not  exist  in  Germany ;  that  it  was 
the  constitutional  privilege  of  the  Emperor  to 
appoint  the  Chancellor  without  any  assistance  or 
advice  from  the  Reichstag;  that  he,  the  Chan- 
cellor, would  resist  with  all  his  might  every  at- 
tempt to  change  this  system;  and  that  he,  there- 
fore, refused  to  resign  because  the  resolution  had 
no  other  effect  than  to  make  it  evident  that  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion  existed  between  the  Reichstag 
and  the  government. 

90 


MILITARISM  AND  THE  ZABERN  AFFAIR 

This  debate  took  place  on  December  ninth, 
1913,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  Social  Dem- 
ocrats and  the  Polish  deputies,  the  leaders  of  all 
parties  supported  the  view  of  the  Chancellor. 
The  motion  to  strike  out  the  Chancellor's  salary 
was  voted  down,  only  the  Social  Democrats  and 
Poles  voting  in  favour  of  it. 

It  is  unquestioned,  however,  that  this  Zabern 
Affair  and  the  consequent  attitude  of  the  whole 
nation,  as  well  as  the  extraordinary  vote  in  the 
Reichstag,  greatly  alarmed  the  military  party. 

It  was  perhaps  the  final  factor  which  decided 
the  advocates  of  the  old  military  system  of  Ger- 
many in  favour  of  a  European  war.  Uusually  in 
past  years  when  the  Reichstag  in  adjournments 
had  risen  and  cheered  the  name  of  the  Emperor, 
the  Social  Democrats  absented  themselves  from 
the  Chamber,  but  when  the  Reichstag  adjourned 
on  May  twentieth,  1914,  these  members  remained 
in  the  Chamber  and  refused  either  to  rise  or  to 
cheer  the  Emperor.  The  President  of  the  Reichs- 
tag immediately  called  attention  to  this  breach 
of  respect  to  the  Emperor,  upon  which  the  So- 
cialists shouted,  "That  is  our  affair,"  and  tried 
to  drown  the  cheers  with  hoots  and  hisses  at 
which  the  other  parties  applauded  tumultuously. 

This  occurrence  I  know  greatly  incensed  the 
Emperor  and  did  much,  I  believe,  to  win  his  con- 
sent to  the  war. 


CHAPTER  V 

PSYCHOLOGY  AND  CAUSES  WHICH  PREPARED  THE) 
NATION  FOR  WAR 

TO  the  outsider,  the  Germans  seem  a  fierce 
and  martial  nation.  But,  in  reality,  the 
mass  of  the  Germans,  in  consenting  to  the  great 
sacrifice  entailed  by  their  enormous  preparations 
for  war,  have  been  actuated  by  fear. 

This  fear  dates  from  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
the  war  which  commenced  in  1618  and  was  ter- 
minated in  1648.  In  1648,  when  the  Treaty  of 
Westphalia  was  concluded,  Germany  was  almost 
a  desert.  Its  population  had  fallen  from  twenty 
millions  to  four  millions.  The  few  remaining 
people  were  so  starved  that  cannibalism  was 
openly  practised.  In  the  German  States  polyg- 
amy was  legalised,  and  was  a  recognised  institu- 
tion for  many  years  thereafter. 

Of  thirty-five  thousand  Bohemian  villages, 
only  six  thousand  were  left  standing.  In  the 
lower  Palatinate  only  one-tenth  of  the  population 
survived ;  in  Wiirttemberg,  only  one-sixth.  Hun- 
dreds of  square  miles  of  once  fertile  country  were 
overgrown  with  forests  inhabited  only  by  wolves. 

92 


CAUSES  WHICH  PREPARED  NATION 

A  picture  of  this  horrible  period  is  found  in  the 
curious  novel,  "The  Adventurous  Simplicissi- 
mus,"  written  by  Grimmelshausen,  and  published 
in  1669,  which  describes  the  adventures  of  a  wise 
peasant  who  finally  leaves  his  native  Germany 
and  betakes  himself  to  a  desert  island  which  he 
refuses  to  leave  when  offered  an  opportunity  to 
go  back  to  the  Fatherland.  He  answers  those 
who  wish  to  persuade  him  to  go  back  with  words 
which  seem  quite  appropriate  to-day :  "My  God, 
where  do  you  want  to  carry  me  ?  Here  is  peace. 
There  is  war.  Here  I  know  nothing  of  the  arts 
of  the  court,  ambitions,  anger,  envy,  deceit,  nor 
have  I  cares  concerning  my  clothing  and  nourish- 
ment. .  .  .  While  I  still  lived  in  Europe  every- 
thing was  (O,  woe  that  I  must  appear  witness  to 
such  acts  of  Christians !)  filled  with  war,  burning, 
murder,  robbery,  plundering  and  the  shame  of 
women  and  virgins."  The  Munich  weekly,  "Sim- 
plicissimus,"  whose  powerful  political  cartoons 
have  often  startled  Europe,  takes  its  name  from 
this  character. 

After  the  conclusion  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
Germany  was  again  and  again  ravaged  by  smaller 
wars,  culminating  in  the  Seven  Years'  War  of 
Frederick  the  Great  and  the  humbling  of  Ger- 
many under  the  heel  of  Napoleon.  In  the  wars 
of  Frederick  the  Great,  one  tenth  of  the  popula- 
tion was  killed.  Even  the  great  Battle  of  the 

93 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

Nations  at  Leipsic  in  1813  did  not  free  Germany 
from  wars,  and  in  1866  Prussia  and  the  smaller 
North  German  States,  with  Italy,  defeated  Aus- 
tria, assisted  by  Bavaria,  Hesse-Cassel,  Hesse- 
Darmstadt,  Nassau,  Saxony,  Baden,  Wiirttem- 
berg  and  Hanover. 

I  am  convinced  that  the  fear  of  war  induced 
by  a  hereditary  instinct,  caused  the  mass  of  the 
Germans  to  become  the  tools  and  dupes  of  those 
who  played  upon  this  very  fear  in  order  to  create 
a  military  autocracy.  On  the  other  hand,  and, 
especially,  in  the  noble  class,  we  have  in  Germany 
a  great  number  of  people  who  believe  in  war  for 
its  own  sake.  In  part,  these  nobles  are  the  de- 
scendants of  the  Teutonic  Knights  who  con- 
quered the  Slav  population  of  Prussia,  and  have 
ever  since  bound  that  population  to  their  will. 

The  Prussian  army  was  created  by  the  father 
of  Frederick  the  Great,  who  went  to  the  most 
ridiculous  extremes  in  obtaining  tall  men  at  all 
costs  for  his  force. 

The  father  of  Frederick  the  Great  gave  the 
following  written  instructions  to  the  two  tutors 
of  his  son.  "Above  all  let  both  tutors  exert  them- 
selves to  the  utmost  to  inspire  him  with  a  love  of 
soldiery  and  carefully  impress  upon  his  mind 
that,  as  nothing  can  confer  honour  and  fame 
upon  a  prince  except  the  sword,  the  monarch  who 
seeks  not  his  sole  satisfaction  in  it  must  ever 

94 


CAUSES  WHICH  PREPARED  NATION 

appear  a  contemptible  character  in  the  eyes  of 
the  world." 

Frederick  the  Great  left,  by  the  death  of  that 
father  who  had  once  threatened  to  execute  him, 
at  the  head  of  a  marvellous  army  with  a  full 
treasury,  finally  decided  upon  war,  as  he  admits 
in  his  own  letters,  "in  order  to  be  talked  about," 
and  his  desire  to  be  talked  about  led  to  the  Seven 
Years'  War. 

The  short  war  against  Denmark  in  1864, 
against  Austria,  Bavaria,  etc.,  in  1866  and 
against  France  in  1870,  enormously  increased 
both  the  pride  and  prestige  of  the  Prussian  army. 
It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  at  all  periods  of 
history  it  seems  as  if  some  blind  instinct  had 
driven  the  inhabitants  of  the  inhospitable  plains 
of  North  Germany  to  war  and  to  conquest.  The 
Cimbri  and  Teutones — the  tribes  defeated  by 
Marius;  Ariovistus,  who  was  defeated  by  Julius 
Caesar;  the  Goths  and  the  Visi-Goths;  the 
Franks  and  the  Saxons;  all  have  poured  forth 
from  this  infertile  country,  for  the  conquest  of 
other  lands.  The  Germans  of  to-day  express 
this  longing  of  the  North  Germans  for  pleasanter 
climes  in  the  phrase  in  which  they  demand  "a 
place  in  the  sun." 

The  nobles  of  Prussia  are  always  for  war. 
The  business  men  and  manufacturers  and  ship- 
owners desire  an  increasing  field  for  their  activi- 

95 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

ties.  The  German  colonies  were  uninhabitable 
by  Europeans.  All  his  life  the  glittering  Em- 
peror and  his  generals  had  planned  and  thought 
of  war;  and  the  Crown  Prince,  surrounded  by 
his  remarkable  collection  of  relics  and  reminders 
of  Napoleon,  dreamed  only  of  taking  the  lead 
in  a  successful  war  of  conquest.  Early  in  the 
winter  of  1913-14,  the  Crown  Prince  showed  his 
collection  of  Napoleana  to  a  beautiful  American 
woman  of  my  acquaintance,  and  said  that  he 
hoped  war  would  occur  while  his  father  was 
alive,  but,  if  not,  he  would  start  a  war  the  mo- 
ment he  came  to  the  throne. 

Since  writing  the  above,  the  American 
woman  who  had  this  conversation  with  the 
Crown  Prince  wrote  out  for  me  the  exact  con- 
versation in  her  own  words,  as  follows :  "I  had 
given  him  Norman  Angell's  book,  'The  Great 
Illusion/  which  seeks  to  prove  that  war  is  un- 
profitable. He  (the  Crown  Prince)  said  that 
whether  war  was  profitable  or  not,  when  he  came 
to  the  throne  there  would  be  war,  if  not  before, 
just  for  the  fun  of  it.  On  a  previous  occasion 
he  had  said  that  the  plan  was  to  attack  and  con- 
quer France,  then  England,  and  after  that  my 
country  (the  United  States  of  America)  ;  Rus- 
sia was  also  to  be  conquered,  and  Germany  would 
be  master  of  the  world." 

The  extraordinary  collection  of  relics,  statues, 

96 


CAUSES  WHICH  PREPARED  NATION 

busts,  souvenirs,  etc.,  of  the  first  Napoleon,  col- 
lected by  the  Crown  Prince,  which  he  was  show- 
ing at  the  time  of  the  first  of  these  conversations 
to  this  American  lady,  shows  the  trend  of  his 
mind  and  that  all  his  admiration  is  centred  upon 
Napoleon,  the  man  who  sought  the  mastery  of  the 
world,  and  who  is  thought  by  admirers  like  the 
Crown  Prince  to  have  failed  only  because  of 
slight  mistakes  which  they  feel,  in  his  place,  they 
would  not  have  made. 

If  the  Germans'  long  preparations  for  war 
were  to  bear  any  fruit,  countless  facts  pointed  to 
the  summer  of  1914  as  the  time  when  the  army 
should  strike  that  great  and  sudden  blow  at  the 
liberties  of  the  world. 

It  was  in  June,  1914,  that  the  improved  Kiel 
Canal  was  reopened,  enabling  the  greatest  war- 
ships to  pass  from  the  Baltic  to  the  North  Sea. 

In  the  Zeppelins  the  Germans  had  arms  not 
possessed  by  any  other  country  and  with  which 
they  undoubtedly  believed  that  they  could  do 
much  more  damage  to  England  than  was  the 
case  after  the  actual  outbreak  of  hostilities.  They 
had  paid  great  attention  to  the  development  of 
the  submarine.  Their  aeroplanes  were  superior 
to  those  of  other  nations.  They  believed  that  in 
the  use  of  poison  gas,  which  was  prepared  before 
the  outbreak  of  the  war,  they  had  a  prize  that 
would  absolutely  demoralise  their  enemy.  They 

97 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

had  their  flame  throwers  and  the  heavy  artillery 
and  howitzers  which  reduced  the  redoubtable 
forts  of  Liege  and  Namur  to  fragments  within 
a  few  hours,  and  which  made  the  holding  of  any 
fortresses  impossible. 

On  their  side,  by  the  imposition  of  a  heavy  tax 
called  the  Wehrbeitrag  or  supplementary  de- 
fence tax,  they  had,  in  1913,  increased  their 
army  by  a  number  of  army  corps.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  law  for  three  years'  military  service 
voted  in  France  had  not  yet  gone  into  effect,  nor 
had  the  law  for  universal  military  service  voted 
by  the  Belgian  Chambers.  Undoubtedly  the 
Germans  based  great  hopes  upon  the  Bagdad 
railway  which  was  to  carry  their  influence  to  the 
East,  and  even  threatened  the  rule  of  England  in 
Egypt  and  India.  Undoubtedly  there  was  talk, 
too,  of  a  Slav  railroad  to  run  from  the  Danube 
to  the  Adriatic  which  would  cut  off  Germany 
from  access  to  the  Southern  Sea.  Francis  De- 
loisi,  the  Frenchman,  in  his  book  published  before 
the  great  war,  called  "De  la  Guerre  des  Balkans 
a  la  Guerre  Europeenne,"  says,  "In  a  word,  the 
present  war  (Balkan)  is  the  work  of  Russia,  and 
the  Danube  Asiatic  railway  is  a  Russian  project. 
If  it  succeeds,  a  continuous  barrier  of  Slav  peo- 
ples will  bar  the  way  to  the  Mediterranean  of  the 
path  of  Austro-German  expansion  from  the 
Black  Sea  to  the  Adriatic.  But  here  again  the 

98 


CAUSES  WHICH  PREPARED  NATION 

Romanoffs  confront  the  Hapsburgs,  the  Austro- 
Serb  conflict  becomes  the  Austro-Russian  con- 
flict, two  great  groups  are  formed,  and  the  Bal- 
kan conflict  becomes  the  European  conflict." 

Another  reason  for  an  immediate  war  was  the 
loan  by  France  to  Russia  made  on  condition  that 
additional  strategic  railways  were  to  be  con- 
structed by  the  Russians  in  Poland.  Although 
this  money  had  been  received,  the  railways  had 
not  been  constructed  at  the  time  of  the  opening 
of  the  Great  War.  Speaking  of  this  situation,  the 
Russian  General  Kuropatkin,  in  his  report  for  the 
year  1900,  said,  "We  must  cherish  no  illusions 
as  to  the  possibility  of  an  easy  victory  over  the 
Austrian  army,"  and  he  then  went  on  to  say, 
"Austria  had  eight  railways  to  transport  troops 
to  the  Russian  frontier  while  Russia  had  only 
four;  and,  while  Germany  had  seventeen  such 
railways  running  to  the  German-Russian  fron- 
tier, the  Russians  had  only  five."  Kuropatkin 
further  said,  "The  differences  are  too  enormous 
and  leave  our  neighbours  a  superiority  which 
cannot  be  overcome  by  the  numbers  of  our  troops, 
or  their  courage." 

Comparing  the  two  armies,  he  said,  "The  in- 
vasion of  Russia  by  German  troops  is  more  prob- 
able than  the  invasion  of  Germany  by  Russian 
troops";  and,  "Our  Western  frontier,  in  the 
event  of  a  European  war,  would  be  in  such  dan- 

99 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

ger  as  it  never  has  known  in  all  the  history  of 
Russia." 

Agitation  by  workmen  in  Russia  was  believed 
in  Germany  to  be  the  beginning  of  a  revolution. 

Illuminating  figures  may  be  seen  in  the  gold 
purchase  of  the  German  Imperial  Bank:  in  1911, 
174,000,000  marks;  in  1912,  173,000,000  marks; 
but  in  1913,  317,000,000  marks. 

There  was  a  belief  in  Germany  that  the  French 
nation  was  degenerate  and  corrupt  and  unpre- 
pared for  war.  This  belief  became  conviction 
when,  in  the  debates  of  the  French  Senate,  Sen- 
ator Humbert,  early  in  1914,  publicly  exposed 
what  he  claimed  to  be  the  weakness  and  unpre- 
paredness  of  France. 

Prince  Lichnowsky,  the  German  Ambassador 
in  London,  certainly  reported  to  his  government 
that  England  did  not  wish  to  enter  the  war.  He 
claims  now  that  he  did  not  mean  that  England 
would  not  fight  at  all  events,  but  undoubtedly  the 
German  Foreign  Office  believed  that  England 
would  remain  out  of  the  war.  The  raising  of 
the  Ulster  army  by  Sir  Edward  Carson,  one  of 
the  most  gigantic  political  bluffs  in  all  history, 
which  had  no  more  revolutionary  or  military  sig- 
nificance than  a  torchlight  parade  during  one  of 
our  presidential  campaigns,  was  reported  by  the 
German  spies  as  a  real  and  serious  revolutionary 
movement;  and,  of  course,  it  was  believed  by  the 

100 


CAUSES  WHICH  PREPARED  NATION 

Germans  that  Ireland  would  rise  in  general  re- 
bellion the  moment  that  war  was  declared.  In 
the  summer  of  1914  Russia  was  believed  to  be  on 
the  edge  of  revolution. 

As  I  have  said  in  a  previous  chapter,  the  move- 
ment against  militarism,  culminating  in  the  ex- 
traordinary vote  in  the  Reichstag  against  the 
government  at  the  time  of  the  Zabern  Affair, 
warned  the  government  and  military  people  that 
the  mass  of  Germans  were  coming  to  their  senses 
and  were  preparing  to  shake  off  the  bogy  of 
militarism  and  fear,  which  had  roosted  so  long 
on  their  shoulders  like  a  Prussian  old-man-of- 
the-sea.  The  Pan-Germans  and  the  Annexation- 
ists  were  hot  for  war.  The  people  alive  could 
recall  only  three  wars,  the  war  against  Denmark 
in  1864,  which  was  settled  in  a  few  days  and 
added  the  duchies  of  Schleswig  and  Holstein  to 
the  Prussian  crown,  and  the  war  of  1866  in  which 
Bavaria,  Baden,  Wiirttemberg,  Hesse-Darm- 
stadt, and  Saxony  were  defeated,  when  the  Aus- 
trian kingdom  of  Hanover  disappeared  and  the 
territories  of  Hesse-Cassel  and  Nassau,  and  the 
free  city  of  Frankfort  were  added  to  Prussia. 
This  war,  from  its  declaration  to  the  battle  of 
Koniggratz  in  which  the  Austrians  were  com- 
pletely defeated,  lasted  only  two  weeks.  In  1870, 
France  was  defeated  within  a  month  and  a  half 
after  the  opening  of  hostilities ;  so  that  the  Kaiser 

101 

LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
RIVERSIDE 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

was  implicitly  believed  when,  on  the  first  day  of 
the  war,  he  appeared  on  the  balcony  of  the  palace 
and  told  the  crowds  who  were  keen  for  war,  that 
"before  the  leaves  have  fallen  from  the  trees  you 
will  be  back  in  your  homes."  The  army  and  all 
Germany  believed  him  and  believed,  too,  that  a 
few  short  weeks  would  see  the  destruction  of 
France  and  the  consequent  seizure  of  her  rich 
colonies ;  that  Russia  could  then  be  struck  a  good 
quick  blow  before  she  could  concentrate  her  army 
and  resources;  that  England  would  remain  neu- 
tral; and  that  Germany  would  consequently  be- 
come, if  not  the  actual  owner,  at  least  the  dictator 
of  the  world.  Some  one  has  since  said  that  the 
Emperor  must  have  meant  pine  trees. 

Working  ever  in  the  dark,  either  owning  or 
influencing  newspapers,  the  great  munition  and 
arms  factory  of  the  Krupp's  insidiously  poisoned 
the  minds  of  the  people  with  the  microbe  of  war. 

Prince  Lichnowsky,  the  German  Ambassador 
to  London,  called  upon  me  often  after  the  out- 
break of  the  war,  and  insisted  that  he  had  cor- 
rectly reported  the  sentiments  of  England  in 
saying  that  England  did  not  want  war.  After 
his  return  to  Germany  the  Germans  quite  unfairly 
treated  him  as  a  man  who  had  failed  and  seemed 
to  blame  him  because  England  had  taken  the  only 
possible  course  open  to  her  and  ranged  herself  on 
the  side  of  France  and  Russia. 

102 


CAUSES  WHICH  PREPARED  NATION 

The  dedication  at  Leipzig,  in  the  year  1913,  of 
the  great  monument  to  celebrate  what  is  called 
the  "War  of  Liberation,"  and  the  victory  of 
Leipzig  in  the  War  of  the  Nations,  1813,  had 
undoubtedly  kindled  a  martial  spirit  in  Germany. 
To  my  mind,  the  course  which  really  determined 
the  Emperor  and  the  ruling  class  for  war  was 
the  attitude  of  the  whole  people  in  the  Zabern 
Affair  and  their  evident  and  growing  dislike  of 
militarism.  The  fact  that  the  Socialists,  at  the 
close  of  the  session  of  the  Reichstag,  boldly  re- 
mained in  the  Chamber  and  refused  to  rise  or  to 
cheer  the  name  of  the  Emperor  indicated  a  new 
spirit  of  resistance  to  autocracy;  and  autocracy 
saw  that  if  it  was  to  keep  its  hold  upon  Germany 
it  must  lead  the  nation  into  a  short  and  success- 
ful war. 

This  is  no  new  trick  of  a  ruling  and  aristocratic 
class.  From  the  days  when  the  patricians  of 
Rome  forced  the  people  into  war  whenever  the 
people  showed  a  disposition  to  demand  their 
rights,  autocracies  have  always  turned  to  war  as 
the  best  antidote  against  the  spirit  of  democracy. 


103 


CHAPTER  VI 
AT  KIEX  JUST  BEFORE  THE;  WAR 


KIEL,  situated  on  the  Baltic,  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  peninsula  of  Jutland  near  the 
Baltic  entrance  of  the  Kiel  Canal,  is  the  princi- 
pal naval  centre  of  Germany. 

When  the  Germans  decided  to  build  up  a  great 
fleet  the  Emperor  used  every  means  to  encourage 
a  love  of  yachting  and  of  the  sea,  and  endeav- 
oured to  make  the  Kiel  Week  a  rival  of  the  week 
at  Cowes,  the  English  yachting  centre. 

With  this  end  in  view,  the  rich  Germans  were 
encouraged  and  almost  commanded  to  build  and 
race  yachts;  and  Americans  and  others  who 
visited  Kiel  in  their  yachts  were  entertained  by 
the  Emperor  in  an  intimacy  impossible  if  they 
had  come  to  Berlin  merely  as  tourists,  residing 
in  a  hotel. 

In  June,  1914,  we  went  to  Kiel  as  guests  of 
Allison  Armour  of  Chicago,  on  his  yacht,  the 
Utowana.  I  was  detained  by  business  in  Berlin 
and  Mrs.  Gerard  preceded  me  to  Kiel.  I  arrived 
there  on  Saturday,  the  twenty-seventh  of  June, 

104 


AT  KIEL  JUST  BEFORE  THE  WAR 

and  that  night  went  with  Armour  to  dine  with 
the  Emperor  on  board  the  Emperor's  yacht, 
Hohenzollern. 

In  the  harbour  were  a  fair  number  of  German 
yachts,  mostly  sailing  yachts,  taking  part  in  the 
races;  the  fine  old  yacht  of  Lord  Brassey,  The 
Sunbeam,  and  the  yacht  of  the  Prince  of  Monaco, 
in  which  he  conducts  his  scientific  voyages.  A 
great  English  fleet,  comprising  some  of  the  most 
powerful  dreadnoughts,  had  also  arrived,  sent  as 
an  earnest  of  the  good  will  and  kindly  feeling 
then  supposed  to  exist  between  Great  Britain 
and  Germany.  The  redoubtable  von  Tirpitz  was 
present  on  a  German  battleship,  and  the  Ham- 
burg American  Line  had  an  old  transatlantic 
steamer,  the  Deutschland,  rechristened  the  Vic- 
toria Luise,  filled  with  guests,  most  of  whom  were 
invited  on  a  hint  from  the  Emperor. 

At  dinner  on  the  Hohenzollern  a  number  of 
English  people  were  present.  The  Kaiser  had  on 
one  side  of  him  the  wife  of  the  British  Admiral, 
Lady  Maud  Warrender,  and  on  the  other  side, 
the  Countess  of  March,  whose  husband  is  heir 
to  the  Duke  of  Richmond.  I  sat  between  Prin- 
cess Miinster  and  the  Countess  of  March,  and 
after  dinner  the  Emperor  drew  me  over  to  the 
rail  of  the  ship,  and  talked  to  me  for  some  time. 
I  wish  that  diplomatic  etiquette  would  permit  me 
to  reveal  what  he  said,  but  even  in  war  time  I  do 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

not  think  I  ought  to  violate  the  confidence  that 
hospitality  seals.  However  important  and  inter- 
esting, especially  to  the  tame  Socialists  of  Ger- 
many, I  do  not  give  this  conversation  with  the 
Emperor,  nor  the  conversation  with  him  and  Col- 
onel House  at  the  Schrippenfest,  because  I 
was  his  guest.  Conversations  with  the  Emperor 
which  I  had  on  later  occasions  were  at  official 
audiences  and  to  these  the  same  rule  does  not 
apply.  He  also  invited  me  to  sail  with  him  in  his 
yacht,  the  Meteor,  in  the  races  from.  Kiel  to  Eck- 
ernf  jord  on  the  coming  Tuesday. 

Sunday  afternoon  Prince  Henry  and  his  wife, 
who  reside  in  the  castle  at  Kiel,  were  to  give  an 
afternoon  reception  and  garden  party;  but  on  ar- 
riving at  the  gates  we  were  told  that  the  party 
would  not  take  place.  After  going  on  board  the 
Utowana,  Frederick  W.  Wile,  the  celebrated  cor- 
respondent of  the  London  Daily  Mail,  ranged  up 
alongside  in  a  small  launch  and  informed  us  that 
the  Arch  Duke  Franz  Ferdinand,  the  heir  to  the 
Austrian  throne,  and  his  wife  had  been  assas- 
sinated at  Sarajevo.  There  was  much  rushing  to 
and  fro  in  fast  launches,  the  Emperor  himself 
being  summoned  from  the  race  which  was  in 
progress.  That  night  we  dined  on  board  the 
yacht  of  the  Prince  of  Monaco.  All  the  diplo- 
mats and  notables  whom  I  met  during  the  after- 
noon and  evening  seemed  to  think  that  there  was 

1 06 


THE  EMPEROR'S  RACING  YACHT,  AND  OTHERS,  AT  KIEL 


THE      HOHENZOLLERN 


AT  KIEL  JUST  BEFORE  THE  WAR 

no  chance  that  the  tragedy  at  Sarajevo  would 
lead  to  war.  The  next  morning  the  Emperor  left 
early  for  Berlin,  but  expressly  directed  that  the 
festivities  and  races  at  Kiel  should  be  carried  out 
as  arranged. 

Monday  afternoon  there  was  a  Bier  abend  in 
the  large  hall  of  the  yacht  club  at  Kiel.  The 
Emperor  was  to  have  presided  at  this  dinner,  but 
his  place  was  taken  by  his  brother,  Prince  Henry. 
Sir  Edward  Goschen,  the  British  Ambassador, 
who  was  living  on  one  of  the  British  battleships, 
sat  on  his  right  and  I  sat  on  his  left.  During  the 
evening  a  curious  incident  happened.  The  Prince 
and  I  were  talking  of  the  dangers  of  after-dinner 
speaking  and  what  a  dangerous  sport  it  was.  In 
the  midst  of  our  conversation  some  one  whispered 
to  the  Prince  and  he  rose  to  his  feet,  proposed  the 
health  of  the  visiting  British  Admiral  and  fleet, 
and  made  a  little  speech.  As  he  concluded,  he 
said,  addressing  the  officers  of  the  British  fleet: 
"We  are  sorry  you  are  going  and  we  are  sorry 
you  came."  It  is  remarkable  as  showing  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  German  nation  and  their  respect 
for  authority  that  thereafter  no  German  ever 
referred  to  this  curious  slip  of  the  tongue.  The 
night  was  rather  mild  and  after  dinner  we  walked 
about  the  gardens  of  the  yacht  club.  I  had  a 
long  and  interesting  conversation  with  the  Prince 
of  Monaco.  That  Prince,  who  receives  such  a 

107 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

large  income  from  the  company  which  carries  on 
the  gambling  rooms  at  Monte  Carlo,  is  a  man  of 
the  world  intensely  interested  in  scientific  re- 
search :  there  is  practically  no  corner  of  the  seven 
seas  into  which  his  yacht  has  not  poked  her  nose 
in  the  search  for  material  for  the  Sea  Museum 
which  he  has  established  at  Monaco. 

On  Tuesday  Armour  and  I  boarded  the  Em- 
peror's sailing  yacht,  the  new  Meteor.  The  race 
was  a  beautiful  run  from  Kiel  to  Eckernfjord 
and  was  won  by  the  Meteor.  As  the  Emperor 
was  not  on  board,  I  did  not  get  one  of  the  sou- 
venir scarf-pins  always  given  to  guests  who  sail 
with  him  on  a  winning  race.  Among  our  crew 
was  Grand  Admiral  von  Koster,  subsequently  an 
advocate  of  the  ruthless  submarine  war. 

Eckernfjord  is  a  little  fishing  and  bathing 
town.  Near  by  is  the  country  residence  of  Prince 
Henry,  a  rather  modest  house,  built  in  brick  in 
English  Elizabethan  style.  The  wife  of  Prince 
Henry  was  a  Princess  of  Hesse-Darmstadt  and 
is  the  sister  of  the  Czarina  of  Russia.  We  had 
tea  wTith  Prince  and  Princess  Henry,  their  fam- 
ily, the  Duke  of  Sonderburg-Gliicksburg  and  sev- 
eral others  of  his  family.  The  billiard  room  of 
the  house  is  decorated  with  the  large  original 
caricatures  made  by  McCutcheon  of  the  Prince's 
stay  in  America.  Prince  and  Princess  Henry 
came  out  to  dine  on  the  Utowana,  and  Armour 

joS 


and  the  Prince  went  ashore  to  attend  another 
Bierabend,  but  I  dodged  the  smoke  and  beer  and 
remained  on  board.  Before  he  left  the  yacht, 
I  had  a  talk  with  Prince  Henry.  He  seemed 
most  exercised  over  the  dislike  of  the  Germans 
by  all  other  peoples  and  asked  me  why  I  thought 
it  existed.  I  politely  told  him  that  I  thought 
it  existed  because  of  the  success  which  the  Ger- 
mans had  had  in  all  fields  of  endeavour,  particu- 
larly in  manufacturing  and  commerce.  He  said, 
with  great  truth,  that  he  believed  a  great  deal 
of  it  came  from  the  bad  manners  of  the  travelling 
Germans.  Prince  Henry  is  an  able  and  reason- 
able man  with  a  most  delightful  manner.  He 
speaks  English  with  a  perfect  English  accent, 
and  I  think  would  be  far  happier  as  an  English 
country  gentleman  than  as  the  Grand  Admiral 
of  the  German  Baltic  Fleet.  He  has  been  de- 
voted to  automobiling  and  has  greatly  encouraged 
that  industry  in  Germany.  The  Automobile  Club 
of  Berlin  is  his  particular  pet. 

On  returning  to  Kiel  next  day  we  spent  several 
days  longer  there.  I  lunched  on  board  his  battle- 
ship with  Grand  Admiral  von  Tirpitz,  sitting 
next  to  him  at  the  table.  He  struck  me  then  as 
an  amiable  sea  dog,  combining  much  political  and 
worldly  wisdom  with  his  knowledge  of  the  sea. 
From  Kiel  we  motored  one  night  to  dine  with  a 
Count  and  Countess  in  their  country  house.  This 

109 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

house  had  been  built  perhaps  two  hundred  years, 
and  was  on  one  side  of  a  square,  the  other  three 
sides  being  formed  by  the  great  stone  barns  in 
which  the  produce  of  the  estate  was  stored.  Al- 
though the  first  floor  of  the  house  was  elevated 
about  eight  feet  above  the  ground,  the  family,  on 
account  of  the  dampness  of  that  part  of  the 
world,  lived  in  the  second  story,  and  the  dining 
room  was  on  this  story.  An  ancestor  of  the 
Count  had,  at  a  time  when  this  part  of  the  coun- 
try was  part  of  Denmark  and  about  the  year 
1 700,  lent  all  his  available  money  to  the  King 
of  Denmark.  A  crude  painting  in  the  hall 
showed  him  sitting  in  the  hall  of  this  particular 
house,  smoking  a  long  pipe  and  surrounded  by 
three  or  four  sisters  who  were  all  spinning.  Our 
hostess  told  us  that  this  picture  represented  the 
lending  ancestor  being  supported  by  his  sisters 
while  waiting  the  return  of  the  loan  which  he 
had  made  to  the  Danish  king,  an  early  example 
of  the  situation  disclosed  by  the  popular  song 
which  runs:  "Everybody  works  but  father."  Of 
course,  no  one  ever  expected  a  Prussian  noble- 
man to  do  any  work  except  in  the  line  of  war  or 
in  governing  the  inferior  classes  of  the  country. 


no 


CHAPTER  VII 

SYSTEM, 


PEOPLE  of  other  countries  have  been  won- 
dering why  it  is  that  the  German  govern- 
ment is  able  so  easily  to  impose  its  will  upon  the 
German  people.  I  have  set  out  in  another  chap- 
ter, in  detail,  the  political  system  from  which 
you  have  seen  that  the  Reichstag  is  nothing  but 
a  debating  society;  that  the  Prussians  do  not 
really  have  universal  suffrage  but,  by  reason  of 
the  vicious  circle  system  of  voting,  the  elective 
franchise  remains  in  the  hands  of  the  few;  and 
that  the  government  of  the  country  through  the 
Landr'dte,  Regiernngsprasidenten  and  Oberpr'dsi- 
denten  is  a  central  system  from  above  downwards 
and  not  the  election  of  the  rulers  by  the  people; 
and,  in  the  chapter  on  militarism  and  Zabern,  I 
have  told  by  what  means  the  control  of  the  army 
is  kept  in  the  hands  of  the  class  of  nobles. 

These  are  not  the  only  means  by  which  the 
system  controls  the  country.  These  alone  would 
not  suffice.  From  the  time  when  he  is  four  years 
old,  the  German  is  disciplined  and  taught  that  his 

in 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

government  is  the  only  good  and  effective  form. 
The  teachers  in  the  schools  are  all  government 
paid  and  teach  the  children  only  the  principles 
desired  by  the  rulers  of  the  German  people. 
There  are  no  Saturday  holidays  in  the  German 
schools  and  their  summer  holidays  are  for  only 
three  to  five  weeks.  You  never  see  gangs  of 
small  boys  in  Germany.  Their  games  and  their 
walks  are  superintended  by  their  teachers  who 
are  always  inculcating  in  them  reverence  and 
awe  for  the  military  heroes  of  the  past  and  pres- 
ent. On  Saturday  night  the  German  boy  is 
turned  over  by  the  State  paid  school  teacher  to 
the  State  paid  pastor  who  adds  divine  authority 
to  the  principles  of  reverence  for  the  German 
system. 

There  is  a  real  system  of  caste  in  Germany. 
For  instance,  I  was  playing  tennis  one  day  with 
a  man  and,  while  dressing  afterwards,  I  asked 
him  what  he  was.  He  answered  that  he  was 
a  Kaufmann,  or  merchant.  For  the  German 
this  answer  was  enough.  It  placed  him  in  the 
merchant  class.  I  asked  him  what  sort  of  a 
Kaufmann  he  was.  He  then  told  me  he  was 
president  of  a  large  electrical  company.  Of 
course,  with  us  he  would  have  answered  first 
that  he  was  president  of  the  electrical  company, 
but  being  a  German  he  simply  disclosed  his  caste 
without  going  into  details.  It  is  a  curious  thing 

I  12 


THE  SYSTEM 

on  the  registers  of  guests  in  a  German  summer 
resort  to  see  Mrs.  Manufactory-Proprietor 
Schultze  registered  with  Mrs.  Landrat  Schwartz 
and  Mrs.  Second  Lieutenant  von  Bing.  Of 
course,  there  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  relative  social 
positions  of  Mrs.  Manufactory-Proprietor 
Schultze  and  Mrs.  Second  Lieutenant  von  Bing. 
Mrs.  Manufactory-Proprietor  Schultze  may  have 
a  steam  yacht  and  a  tiara,  an  opera  box  and  ten 
million  marks.  She  may  be  an  old  lady  noted 
for  her  works  of  charity.  Her  husband  may 
have  made  discoveries  of  enormous  value  to  the 
human  race,  but  she  will  always  be  compelled  to 
take  her  place  behind  Mrs.  Second  Lieutenant 
von  Bing,  even  if  the  latter  is  only  seventeen 
years  old. 

Of  course,  occasionally,  officers  of  the  army 
and  navy  condescend  to  marry  into  the  merchant 
caste,  and  if  a  girl  has  a  choice  of  three  equally 
attractive  young  men,  one  a  doctor,  earning  ten 
thousand  dollars  a  year;  one  a  manufacturer, 
earning  the  same  amount;  and  one  an  army  offi- 
cer with  a  "von"  before  his  name  and  three 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  there  is  no  hesitation  on 
her  part:  she  takes  the  noble  and  the  army 
officer. 

For  years  all  the  highest  official  positions  of 
the  government  have  been  held  by  members  of 
the  Prussian  noble  class,  and  when  Zimmermann, 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY] 

of  a  substantial  family  in  East  Prussia,  but  not 
of  noble  birth,  was  made  Foreign  Minister,  the 
most  intense  surprise  was  exhibited  all  over  Ger- 
many at  this  innovation. 

One  of  the  most  successful  ways  of  disciplin- 
ing the  people  is  by  the  Rat  system.  Rat  means 
councillor,  and  is  a  title  of  honour  given  to  any 
one  who  has  attained  a  certain  measure  of  success 
or  standing  in  his  chosen  business  or  profession. 
For  instance,  a  business  man  is  made  a  commerce 
Rat;  a  lawyer,  a  justice  Rat ;  a  doctor,  a  sanitary 
Rat;  an  architect  or  builder,  a  building  Rat;  a 
keeper  of  the  archives,  an  archive  Rat;  and  so  on. 
They  are  created  in  this  way:  first,  a  man  be- 
comes a  plain  Rat,  then,  later  on,  he  becomes  a 
secret  Rat  or  privy  councillor ;  still  later,  a  court 
secret  Rat  and,  later  still,  a  wirklicher,  or  really 
and  truly  secret  court  Rat  to  which  may  be  added 
the  title  of  Excellency,  which  puts  the  man  who 
has  attained  this  absolutely  at  the  head  of  the 
Rat  ladder. 

But  see  the  insidious  working  of  the  system. 
By  German  custom  the  woman  always  carries 
the  husband's  title.  The  wife  of  a  successful 
builder  is  known  as  Mrs.  Really  Truly  Secret 
Court  Building  Rat  and  her  social  precedence 
over  the  other  women  depends  entirely  upon 
her  husband's  position  in  the  Rat  class.  Titles 
of  nobility  alone  do  not  count  when  they  come  in 

114 


THE  SYSTEM 

contact  with  a  high  government  position.  Now 
if  a  lawyer  gets  to  be  about  forty  years  old 
and  is  not  some  sort  of  a  Rat,  his  wife  begins  to 
nag  him  and  his  friends  and  relations  look  at 
him  with  suspicion.  There  must  be  something 
in  his  life  which  prevents  his  obtaining  the  cov- 
eted distinction  and  if  there  is  anything  in  a 
man's  past,  if  he  has  shown  at  any  time  any 
spirit  of  opposition  to  the  government,  as  dis- 
closed by  the  police  registers,  which  are  kept 
written  up  to  date  about  every  German  citizen, 
then  he  has  no  chance  of  obtaining  any  of  these 
distinctions  which  make  up  so  much  of  the  social 
life  of  Germany.  It  is  a  means  by  wrhich  the 
government  keeps  a  far  tighter  hold  on  the  intel- 
lectual part  of  its  population  than  if  they  were 
threatened  with  torture  and  the  stake.  The  So- 
cial Democrats,  who,  of  course,  have  declared 
themselves  against  the  existing  system  of  govern- 
ment and  in  favour  of  a  republic,  can  receive  no 
distinctions  from  the  government  because  they 
dared  to  lift  their  voices  and  their  pens  in  criti- 
cism of  the  existing  order.  For  them  there  is 
the  fear  of  the  law.  Convictions  for  the  crime 
of  Lese-Majeste  are  of  almost  daily  occurrence 
and,  at  the  opening  of  the  war,  an  amnesty  was 
granted  in  many  of  these  cases,  the  ministry  of 
war  withdrawing  many  prosecutions  against  poor 
devils  waiting  their  trial  in  jail  because  they  had 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

dared  to  speak  disrespectfully  of  the  army.  The 
following  quotation  from  a  German  book,  writ- 
ten since  the  war,  shows  very  clearly  that  this 
state  of  affairs  existed :  "In  the  beneficent  atmos- 
phere of  general  amnesty  came  the  news  that 
the  Minister  of  War  had  withdrawn  pending 
prosecutions  against  newspapers  on  account  of 
their  insults  to  the  army  or  its  members."  (Dr. 
J.  Jastrow,  "Im  Kriegszustand.") 

Besides  the  Rat  system  and  the  military  sys- 
tem, there  exists  the  enormous  mass  of  Prus- 
sian officials.  In  a  country  where  so  many  things 
are  under  government  control  these  officials  are 
almost  immeasurably  more  numerous  than  in 
other  countries.  In  Prussia,  for  example,  all  the 
railways  are  government-owned,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  one  road  about  sixty  miles  long  and  a 
few  small  branch  roads.  This  army  of  officials 
are  retainers  of  the  government,  and  not  only, 
of  course,  themselves  refrain  from  criticising  the 
system,  but  also  use  their  influence  upon  the  mem- 
bers of  their  own  family  and  all  with  whom  they 
come  in  contact.  They  are  subject  to  trial  in 
special  secret  courts  and  one  of  them  who  dared 
in  any  way  to  criticise  the  existing  system  would 
not  for  long  remain  a  member  of  it.  Of  course, 
the  members  of  the  Reichstag  have  the  privilege 
of  free  speech  without  responsibility,  and  there 
are  occasional  Socialists,  who  know  that  they 

116 


THE  SYSTEM 

have  nothing  to  expect  from  the  government,  who 
dare  to  speak  in  criticism. 

All  the  newspapers  are  subject  to  control  as  in 
no  other  country.  In  the  first  place  their  pro- 
prietors are  subject  to  the  influence  of  the  Rat 
system  as  is  every  other  German,  and  the  news- 
paper proprietor,  whose  sons  perhaps  enter  the 
army,  whose  daughters  may  be  married  to  naval 
officers  or  officials,  and  who  seeks  for  his  sons 
promotion  as  judge,  state's  attorney,  etc.,  has 
to  be  very  careful  that  the  utterances  of  his  news- 
paper do  not  prevent  his  promotion  in  the  social 
scale  or  interfere  with  the  career  of  his  family 
and  relations. 

Since  the  war  while  a  preventive  censure  does 
not  exist  in  Germany  nevertheless  a  newspaper 
may  be  suppressed  at  will;  a  fearful  punishment 
for  a  newspaper,  which,  by  being  suppressed  for, 
say,  five  days  or  a  week,  has  its  business  affairs 
thrown  into  the  utmost  confusion  and  suffers  an 
enormous  direct  loss. 

Many  of  the  larger  newspapers  are  either 
owned  or  influenced  by  concerns  like  the  Krupps'. 
For  instance,  during  this  war,  all  news  coming 
from  Germany  to  other  countries  has  been  fur- 
nished by  either  the  Over-Seas  or  Trans-Ocean 
service,  both  news  agencies  in  which  the  Krupps 
are  large  stockholders.  The  smaller  newspapers 
are  influenced  directly  by  the  government. 

117 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

In  the  Middle  Ages  there  was  often  declared  a 
sort  of  truce  to  prevent  fighting  in  a  city,  which 
was  called  the  Burgfricdcn  or  "peace  of  the 
city,"  and,  at  the  beginning  of  this  war,  all  po- 
litical parties  were  supposed  to  declare  a  sort  of 
Burgfrieden  and  not  try  to  obtain  any  political 
advantage. 

There  was,  therefore,  intense  indignation 
among  the  Social  Democrats  of  Germany  when 
it  was  discovered,  in  the  spring  of  1916,  that  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior  was  making  arrange- 
ments to  send  out  news  service  to  be  furnished 
free  to  the  smaller  newspapers,  and  that  he  was 
engaged  in  instructing  the  various  Landrate  and 
other  officials  of  the  Interior  Department  how 
effectively  to  use  this  machinery  in  order  to  gull 
the  people  to  the  advantage  of  the  government, 
and  to  keep  them  in  ignorance  of  anything  which 
might  tend  to  turn  them  against  the  system. 

Besides  the  Rat  system  there  is,  of  course,  the 
system  of  decorations.  Countless  orders  and 
decorations  are  given  in  Germany.  At  the  head 
is  the  Order  of  the  Black  Eagle;  there  are  the 
Order  of  the  Red  Eagle,  the  Prussian  Order  of 
the  Crown,  the  orders,  "Pour  le  Merite"  the  Or- 
der of  the  House  of  Hohenzollern,  and  many  oth- 
ers, and  in  each  of  the  twenty-five  States  there  are 
also  orders,  distinctions  and  decorations.  These 
orders  in  turn  are  divided  into  numerous  classes. 

118 


THE  SYSTEM 

For  instance,  a  man  can  have  the  Red  Eagle 
order  of  the  first,  second,  third  or  fourth  class, 
and  these  may  be  complicated  with  a  laurel 
crown,  with  an  oak  crown,  with  swords  and  with 
stars,  etc.  Even  domestic  servants,  who  have 
served  a  long  time  in  one  family,  receive  orders ; 
and  faithful  postmen  and  other  officials  who  have 
never  appeared  on  the  police  books  for  having 
made  statements  against  the  government  or  the 
army  are  sure  of  receiving  some  sort  of  order. 

Once  a  year  in  Berlin  a  great  festival  is  held 
called  the  Ordensfest,  when  all  who  hold  or- 
,ders  or  decorations  of  any  kind  are  invited  to 
a  great  banquet.  The  butler,  who  has  served  for 
twenty-five  years,  there  rubs  shoulders  with  the 
diplomat  who  has  received  a  Black  Eagle  for 
adding  a  colony  to  the  German  Empire,  and  the 
faithful  cook  may  be  seated  near  an  officer  who 
has  obtained  "Pour  le  Merite"  for  sinking  an 
enemy  warship.  All  this  in  one  sense  is  demo- 
cratic, but  in  its  effect  it  tends  to  induce  the  plain 
people  to  be  satisfied  with  a  piece  of  ribbon  in- 
stead of  the  right  to  vote,  and  to  make  them 
upholders  of  a  system  by  which  they  are  deprived 
of  any  opportunity  to  make  a  real  advance  in 
life. 

This  system  is  the  most  complete  that  has  ever 
existed  in  any  country,  because  it  has  drawn  so 
many  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  into  its 

119 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

meshes.  Practically,  the  industrial  workers  of 
the  great  towns  and  the  stupid  peasants  in  the 
country  are  the  only  people  in  Germany  left  out 
of  its  net. 

I  had  a  shooting  place  very  near  Berlin,  in  fact 
I  could  reach  it  in  three  quarters  of  an  hour  by 
motor  from  the  Embassy  door,  and  there  I  had 
an  opportunity  of  studying  the  conditions  of  life 
of  the  peasant  class. 

Germany  is  still  a  country  of  great  proprietors. 
Lands  may  be  held  there  by  a  tenure  which  was 
abolished  in  England  hundreds  of  years  ago.  In 
England,  property  may  only  be  tied  up  under 
fixed  conditions  during  the  lives  of  certain  chosen 
people,  in  being  at  the  death  of  the  testator.  In 
the  State  of  New  York,  property  may  only  be 
tied  up  during  the  lives  of  two  persons,  in  being 
at  the  death  of  the  person  making  the  will,  and 
for  twenty-one  years  (the  minority  of  an  infant) 
thereafter.  But  in  the  Central  Empires,  property 
still  may  be  tied  up  for  an  indefinite  period  under 
the  feudal  system,  so  that  great  estates,  no  mat- 
ter how  extravagant  the  life  tenant  may  be,  are 
not  sold  and  do  not  come  into  the  market  for 
division  among  the  people. 

For  instance,  to-day  there  exist  estates  in  the 
Central  Empires  which  must  pass  from  oldest 
son  to  oldest  son  indefinitely  and,  failing  that,  to 
the  next  in  line,  and  so  on;  and  conditions  have 

1 20 


AMBASSADOR   GERARD  ON   THE   WAY   TO   HIS    SHOOTING  PRESERVE 


A  KEEPER  AND  BEATERS  ON   THE  SHOOTING  PRESERVE.      IT  SHOWS   THE   EARLY 
IXNOCULATION   OF   DISCIPLINE    INTO   THE    GERMAN    SMALL   BOY 


THE  SYSTEM 

even  been  annexed  by  which  children  cannot  in- 
herit if  their  father  has  married  a  woman  not  of 
a  stated  number  of  quarter  ings  of  nobility.  There 
is  a  Prince  holding  great  estates  in  Hungary. 
He  is  a  bachelor  and  if  he  desires  his  children  to 
inherit  these  estates  there  are  only  thirteen  girls 
in  the  world  whom  he  can  marry,  according  to 
the  terms  of  the  instrument  by  which  some  dis- 
tant ancestor  founded  this  inheritance. 

This  vicious  system  has  prevented  extensive 
peasant  proprietorship.  The  government,  how- 
ever, to  a  certain  extent,  has  encouraged  peasant 
proprietorship,  but  only  with  very  small  parcels 
of  land;  and  it  would  be  an  unusual  thing  in  Ger- 
many, especially  in  Prussia,  to  find  a  peasant 
owning  more  than  twenty  or  thirty  acres  of  land, 
most  of  the  land  being  held  by  the  peasants  in 
such  small  quantities  that  after  working  their 
own  lands  they  have  time  left  to  work  the  lands 
of  the  adjoining  landed  proprietor  at  a  very  small 
wage. 

All  the  titles  of  the  nobility  are  not  confined 
to  the  oldest  son.  The  "Pocketbook  of  Counts," 
published  by  the  same  firm  which  publishes  the 
"Almanac  de  Gotha,"  contains  the  counts  of 
Austria,  Germany  and  Hungary  together,  show- 
ing in  this  way  the  intimate  personal  relation 
between  the  noble  families  of  these  three  coun- 
tries. All  *he  sons  of  a  count  are  counts,  and  so 

121 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

on,  ad  infinitum.  Thus  in  Hungary  there  are 
probably  seventy  Counts  Szecheny  and  about  the 
same  number  of  Zichy,  etc.  Some  of  the  Ger- 
man noble  families  are  not  far  behind.  In  fact 
it  may  be  said  that  almost  any  person,  in  what  is 
known  as  "society"  in  the  Central  Empires,  has 
a  title  of  some  sort.  The  prefix  "von"  shows  that 
the  person  is  a  noble  and  is  often  coupled  with 
names  of  people  who  have  no  title.  By  custom 
in  Germany,  a  "von"  when  he  goes  abroad  is 
allowed  to  call  himself  Baron.  But  in  Germany 
he  could  not  do  so.  These  noble  families  in  the 
Central  Empires,  by  the  system  of  Majorat 
which  I  have  described,  hold  large  landed  estates, 
and  naturally  exert  a  great  influence  upon  their 
labourers.  As  a  rule  the  system  of  tenant  farm- 
ing does  not  exist;  that  is,  estates  are  not  leased 
to  small  farmers  as  was  the  custom  in  Ireland 
and  is  still  in  England,  but  estates  are  worked  as 
great  agricultural  enterprises  under  superinten- 
dents appointed  by  the  proprietor.  This  system, 
impossible  in  America  or  even  in  England,  is 
possible  in  the  Central  Empires  where  the  vil- 
lages are  full  of  peasants  who,  not  so  many  gen- 
erations ago,  were  serfs  attached  to  the  land  and 
who  lived  in  wholesome  fear  of  the  landed  pro- 
prietors. 

This  is  the  first  method  by  which  influence  is 
exercised  on  the  population.     There  is  also  the 

122 


THE  SYSTEM 

restricted  franchise  or  "circle  voting"  which  gives 
the  control  of  the  franchise  to  a  few  rich  pro- 
prietors. 

As  a  rule,  the  oldest  son  enters  the  army  as 
an  officer  and  may  continue,  but  if  he  has  not 
displayed  any  special  aptitude  for  the  military 
profession  he  retires  and  manages  his  estate. 
These  estates  are  calculated  by  their  proprietors 
to  give  at  least  four  per  cent  interest  income  on 
the  value  of  the  land.  Many  younger  sons  after 
a  short  term  of  service  in  the  army,  usually  as 
officers  and  not  as  Einjdhriger  leave  the  army 
and  enter  diplomacy  or  some  other  branch  of  the 
government  service.  The  offices  of  judge,  district 
attorney,  etc.,  not  being  elective,  this  career  as 
well  as  that  leading  to  the  position  of  Landrat 
and  over-president  of  a  province  is  open  to  those 
who,  because  they  belong  to  old  Prussian  landed 
families,  find  favour  in  the  eyes  of  the  govern- 
ment. Much  is  heard  in  Germany  and  out  of 
Germany  of  the  Prussian  Squire  or  Junker. 

There  is  no  leisure  class  among  the  Junkers. 
They  are  all  workers,  patriotic,  honest  and  de- 
voted to  the  Emperor  and  the  Fatherland.  If  it 
is  possible  that  government  by  one  class  is  to  be 
suffered,  then  the  Prussian  Junkers  have  proved 
themselves  more  fit  for  rule  than  any  class  in  all 
history.  Their  virtues  are  Spartan,  their  minds 
narrow  but  incorruptible,  and  their  bravery  and 

123 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

patriotism  undoubted.  One  can  but  admire  them 
and  their  stern  virtues.  This  class,  largely  be- 
cause of  its  poverty  and  its  constant  occupation, 
does  not  travel;  nor  does  the  casual  tourist  or 
health  seeker  in  Germany  come  in  contact  with 
these  men.  The  Junkers  will  fight  hard  to  keep 
their  privileges,  and  the  throne  will  fight  hard  for 
the  Junkers  because  they  are  the  greatest  sup- 
porters of  the  Hohenzollerns. 

The  workingmen  in  the  cities  are  hard  work- 
ers and  probably  work  longer  and  get  less  out 
of  life  than  any  workingmen  in  the  world.  The 
laws  so  much  admired  and  made  ostensibly  for 
their  protection,  such  as  insurance  against  unem- 
ployment, sickness,  injury,  old  age,  etc.,  are  in 
reality  skilful  measures  which  bind  them  to  the 
soil  as  effectively  as  the  serfs  of  the  Middle  Ages 
were  bound  to  their  masters'  estates. 

I  have  had  letters  from  workingmen  who  have 
worked  in  America  begging  me  for  a  steerage 
fare  to  America,  saying  that  their  insurance  pay- 
ments were  so  large  that  they  could  not  save 
money  out  of  their  wages.  Of  course,  after  hav- 
ing made  these  payments  for  some  years,  the 
workingman  naturally  hesitates  to  emigrate  and 
so  lose  all  the  premiums  he  has  paid  to  the  State. 
In  peace  times  a  skilled  mechanic  in  Germany 
received  less  than  two  dollars  a  day,  for  which 
he  was  compelled  to  work  at  least  ten  hours. 

124 


THE  SYSTEM 

Agricultural  labourers  in  the  Central  Empires 
are  poorly  paid.  The  women  do  much  of  the 
work  done  here  by  men.  For  instance,  once  when 
staying  at  a  nobleman's  estate  in  Hungary,  I 
noticed  that  the  gardeners  were  all  women,  and, 
on  inquiring  how  much  they  received,  I  was  told 
they  were  paid  about  twenty  cents  a  day.  The 
women  in  the  farming  districts  of  Germany  are 
worked  harder  than  the  cattle.  In  summer  time 
they  are  out  in  the  fields  at  five  or  six  in  the 
morning  and  do  not  return  until  eight  or  later  at 
night.  For  this  work  they  are  sometimes  paid 
as  high  as  forty-eight  cents  a  day  in  harvest 
time.  Nevertheless,  these  small  wages  tempt 
many  Russians  to  Germany  during  the  harvest 
season.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  there  were 
perhaps  fifty  thousand  Russians  employed  in 
Germany;  men,  women  and  girls.  These  the 
Germans  retained  in  a  sort  of  slavery  to  work  the 
fields.  I  spoke  to  one  Polish  girl  who  was  work- 
ing on  an  estate  over  which  I  had  shooting  rights, 
near  Berlin.  She  told  me  that  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  war  she  and  her  family  were  working 
in  Germany  and  that  since  the  war  they  all  de- 
sired to  return  to  Poland  but  that  the  Germans 
would  not  permit  it. 

This  hard  working  of  women  in  agricultural 
pursuits  tends  to  stupefy  and  brutalise  the  rural 
population  and  keeps  them  in  a  condition  of  sub- 

125 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

jection  to  the  Prussian  Church  and  the  Prussian 
system,  and  in  readiness  for  war.  Both  Prussian 
Junkers  and  the  German  manufacturers  look  with 
favour  upon  the  employment  of  so  many  women 
in  farm  work  because  the  greater  the  number  of 
the  labourers,  the  smaller  their  wages  throughout 
the  country. 

When  I  first  came  to  Germany  I,  of  course, 
was  filled  with  the  ideas  that  prevailed  in  Amer- 
ica that  the  German  workingman  had  an  easy 
time.  My  mind  was  filled  with  pictures  of  the 
German  workingmen  sitting  with  their  families 
at  tables,  drinking  beer  and  listening  to  classical 
music.  After  I  had  spent  some  time  in  Germany, 
I  found  that  the  reason  that  the  German  work- 
ingmen sat  about  the  tables  was  because  they  were 
too  tired  to  do  anything  else. 

I  sincerely  hope  that  after  the  war  the  work- 
ingmen of  this  country  will  induce  delegates  of 
their  German  brothers  to  make  a  tour  of  America. 
For  when  the  German  workingmen  see  how  much 
better  off  the  Americans  are,  they  will  return  to 
Germany  and  demand  shorter  hours  and  higher 
wages;  and  the  American  will  not  be  brought 
into  competition  with  labour  slaves  such  as  the 
German  workingmen  of  the  period  before  the 
war. 

As  one  goes  through  the  streets  of  Berlin  there 
are  no  evidences  of  poverty  to  be  seen ;  but  over 

126 


THE  SYSTEM 

fifty-five  per  cent  of  the  families  in  Berlin  are 
families  living  in  one  room. 

The  Germans  are  taken  care  of  and  educated 
very  much  in  the  same  way  that  the  authorities 
here  look  after  the  inmates  of  a  poor-house  or 
penitentiary.  Such  a  thing  as  a  German  railway 
conductor  rising  to  be  president  of  the  road  is 
an  impossibility  in  Germany;  and  the  list  of  self- 
made  men  is  small  indeed, — by  that  I  mean  men 
who  have  risen  from  the  ranks  of  the  working- 
men. 

The  Socialists,  representing  the  element  op- 
posed to  the  Conservatives,  elect  a  few  members 
to  the  Prussian  Lower  House  and  about  one-third 
of  the  members  to  the  Reichstag,  but  otherwise 
have  no  part  whatever  in  the  government.  No 
Socialist  would  have  any  chance  whatever  if  he 
set  out  to  enter  the  government  service  with  the 
ambition  of  becoming  a  district  attorney  or  judge. 
Jews  have  not  much  chance  in  the  government 
service.  A  few  exceptions  have  been  made.  At 
one  time  Dernburg,  who  carried  on  the  propa- 
ganda in  America  during  the  first  year  of  the 
war,  and  who  is  a  Jew,  was  appointed  Colonial 
Minister  of  the  Empire. 

In  my  opinion,  the  liberalisation  of  Prussia  has 
been  halted  by  the  fact  that  there  has  been  no 
party  of  protest  except  that  of  the  Socialists,  and 
the  Socialists,  because  they  have,  in  effect,  de- 

127 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

manded  abolition  of  the  monarchy  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  republic  as  part  of  their  pro- 
gramme, have  been  unable  to  do  anything  in  the 
obtaining  of  the  reforms. 

Up  to  the  beginning  of  the  war  there  was  great 
dissatisfaction.  The  people  were  irritated  by  cer- 
tain direct  taxes  such  as  the  tax  upon  matches, 
and  because  every  Protestant  in  Prussia  was 
compelled  to  pay  a  tax  for  the  support  of  the 
church,  unless  he  made  a  declaration  that  he  was 
an  atheist. 

The  only  class  in  Germany  which  knows  some- 
thing of  the  outside  world  is  the  Kaufmann  class. 
Prussian  nobles  of  the  ruling  class  are  not  trav- 
ellers. They  are  always  busy  with  the  army  and 
navy,  government  employments  or  their  estates ; 
and,  as  a  rule,  too  poor  to  travel.  The  poor,  of 
course,  do  not  travel,  and  the  Kaufmann,  al- 
though he  learns  much  in  his  travels  in  other 
countries  to  make  him  dissatisfied  with  the  small 
opportunity  which  he  has  in  a  political  way  in 
Germany,  is  satisfied  to  let  things  stand  because 
of  the  enormous  profits  which  he  makes  through 
the  low  wages  and  long  hours  of  the  German 
workingman. 

Lawyers  and  judges  amount  to  little  in  Ger- 
many and  we  do  not  find  there  a  class  of  political 
lawyers  who,  in  republics,  always  seem  to  get  the 
management  of  affairs  in  their  own  hands. 

128 


CHAPTER  VIII 

DAYS  BEFORE  THE}  WAR 


AFTER  my  return  from  Kiel  to  Berlin  a 
period  of  calm  ensued.    No  one  seemed  to 
think  that  the  murders  at  Sarajevo  would  have 
any  effect  upon  the  world. 

The  Emperor  had  gone  North  on  his  yacht, 
but,  as  I  believe,  not  until  a  certain  line  of  action 
had  been  agreed  upon. 

Most  of  the  diplomats  started  on  their  vaca- 
tions. Sir  Edward  Goschen,  British  Ambassa- 
dor, as  well  as  the  Russian  Ambassador,  left 
Berlin.  This  shows,  of  course,  how  little  war 
was  expected  in  diplomatic  circles. 

I  went  on  two  visits  to  German  country-houses 
in  Silesia,  where  the  richest  estates  are  situated. 
One  of  these  visits  was  to  the  country-house  of  a 
Count,  one  of  the  wealthiest  men  in  Germany, 
possessed  of  a  fortune  of  about  twenty  to  thirty 
million  dollars.  He  has  a  great  estate  in  Silesia, 
farmed,  as  I  explained,  not  by  tenant  farmers, 
but  by  his  own  superintendents.  In  the  centre  is 
a  beautiful  country  house  or  castle.  We  were 
thirty-two  guests  in  the  house-party.  This 

129 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

and  his  charming  wife  had  travelled  much  and 
evidently  desired  to  model  their  country  life  on 
that  of  England.  Our  amusements  were  tennis, 
swimming  and  clay-pigeon  shooting,  with  danc- 
ing and  music  at  night.  Life  such  as  this,  and 
especially,  the  lavish  entertainment  of  so  many 
guests,  is  something  very  exceptional  in  Prus- 
sian country  life  and  quite  a  seven  months'  won- 
der for  the  country  side. 

Some  days  after  my  return  to  Berlin  the  ulti- 
matum of  Austria  was  sent  to  Serbia.  Even 
then  there  was  very  little  excitement,  and,  when 
the  Serbian  answer  was  published,  it  was  be- 
lieved that  this  would  end  the  incident,  and  that 
matters  would  be  adjusted  by  dilatory  diplomats 
in  the  usual  way. 

On  the  twenty-sixth  of  July,  matters  began  to 
boil.  The  Emperor  returned  on  this  day  and, 
from  the  morning  of  the  twenty-seventh,  took 
charge.  On  the  twenty-seventh,  also,  Sir  Ed- 
ward Goschen  returned  to  Berlin.  I  kept  in 
touch,  so  far  as  possible,  with  the  other  diplomats, 
as  the  German  officials  were  exceedingly  uncom- 
municative, although  I  called  on  von  Jagow  every 
day  and  tried  to  get  something  out  of  him.  On 
the  night  of  the  twenty-ninth,  the  Chancellor  and 
Sir  Edward  had  their  memorable  conversation 
in  which  the  Chancellor,  while  making  no  prom- 
ises about  the  French  colonies,  agreed,  if  Great 

130 


THE  DAYS  BEFORE  THE  WAR 

Britain  remained  neutral,  to  make  "no  territorial 
aggressions  at  the  expense  of  France." 

The  Chancellor  further  stated  to  Sir  Edward, 
that  ever  since  he  had  been  Chancellor  the  object 
of  his  policy  had  been  to  bring  about  an  under- 
standing with  England  and  that  he  had  in  mind 
a  general  neutrality  agreement  between  Germany 
and  England. 

On  the  thirtieth,  Sir  Edward  Grey  refused  the 
bargain  proposed,  namely  that  Great  Britain 
should  engage  to  stand  by  while  the  French  col- 
onies were  taken  and  France  beaten,  so  long  as 
French  territory  was  not  taken.  Sir  Edward 
Grey  said  that  the  so-called  bargain  at  the  ex- 
pense of  France  would  constitute  a  disgrace  from 
which  the  good  name  of  Great  Britain  would 
never  recover.  He  also  refused  to  bargain  with 
reference  to  the  neutrality  of  Belgium. 

Peace  talk  continued,  however,  on  both  the 
thirtieth  and  thirty-first,  and  many  diplomats 
were  still  optimistic.  On  the  thirty-first  I  was 
lunching  at  the  Hotel  Bristol  with  Mrs.  Gerard 
and  Thomas  H.  Birch,  our  minister  to  Portugal, 
and  his  wife.  I  left  the  table  and  went  over  and 
talked  to  Mouktar  Pascha,  the  Turkish  Ambas- 
sador, who  assured  me  that  there  was  no  danger 
whatever  of  war.  But  in  spite  of  his  assurances 
and  judging  by  the  situation  and  what  I  learned 
from  other  diplomats,  I  had  cabled  to  the  State 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

Department  on  the  morning  of  that  day  saying 
that  a  general  European  war  was  inevitable.  On 
the  thirty-first,  Kriegsgefahrzustand  or  "con- 
dition of  danger  of  war"  was  proclaimed  at 
seven  p.  M.,  and  at  seven  p.  M.  the  demand  was 
made  by  Germany  that  Russia  should  demobilise 
within  twelve  hours.  On  the  thirtieth,  I  had  a 
talk  with  Baron  Beyens,  the  Minister  of  Belgium, 
and  Jules  Cambon,  the  French  Ambassador,  in 
the  garden  of  the  French  Embassy  in  the  after- 
noon. They  both  agreed  that  nothing  could  pre- 
vent war  except  the  intervention  of  America. 

Both  Ambassador  Cambon  and  Minister  Bey- 
ens  were  very  sad  and  depressed.  After  leaving 
them  I  met  Sir  Edward  Grey  upon  the  street  and 
had  a  short  conversation  with  him.  He  also  was 
very  depressed. 

Acting  on  my  own  responsibility,  I  sent  the 
following  letter  to  the  Chancellor: 

"Your  Excellency: 

Is  there  nothing  that  my  country  can  do? 
Nothing  that  I  can  do  towards  stopping  this 
dreadful  war? 

I  am  sure  that  the  President  would  approve 
any  act  of  mine  looking  towards  peace. 

Yours  ever, 
(Signed)     JAMES  W.  GERARD." 

To  this  letter  I  never  had  any  reply. 

132 


THE  DAYS  BEFORE  THE  WAR 

On  the  first  of  August  at  five  P.  M.  the  order 
for  mobilisation  was  given,  and  at  seven-ten 
p.  M.  war  was  declared  by  Germany  on  Russia, 
the  Kaiser  proclaiming  from  the  balcony  of  the 
palace  that  "he  knew  no  parties  more." 

Of  course,  during  these  days  the  population  of 
Berlin  was  greatly  excited.  Every  night  great 
crowds  of  people  paraded  the  streets  singing 
"Deutschland  Ueber  Alles"  and  demanding  war. 
Extras,  distributed  free,  were  issued  at  frequent 
intervals  by  the  newspapers,  and  there  was  a 
general  feeling  among  the  Germans  that  their 
years  of  preparation  would  now  bear  fruit,  that 
Germany  would  conquer  the  world  and  impose 
its  Kultur  upon  all  nations. 

On  the  second  of  August,  I  called  in  the  morn- 
ing to  say  good-bye  to  the  Russian  Ambassador. 
His  Embassy  was  filled  with  unfortunate  Rus- 
sians who  had  gone  there  to  seek  protection  and 
help.  Right  and  left,  men  and  women  were 
weeping  and  the  whole  atmosphere  seemed  that 
of  despair. 

On  the  day  the  Russian  Ambassador  left,  I 
sent  him  my  automobile  to  take  him  to  the  sta- 
tion. The  chauffeur  and  footman  reported  to 
me  that  the  police  protection  was  inadequate, 
that  the  automobile  was  nearly  overturned  by 
the  crowd,  and  that  men  jumped  on  the  running 
board  and  struck  the  Ambassador  and  the  ladies 

133 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

with  him  in  the  face  with  sticks.  His  train  was 
due  to  leave  at  one-fifteen  p.  M.  At  about  ten 
minutes  of  one,  while  I  was  standing  in  my  room 
in  the  Embassy  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  Amer- 
icans, Mrs.  James,  wife  of  the  Senator  from 
Kentucky  and  Mrs.  Post  Wheeler,  wife  of  our 
Secretary  to  the  Embassy  in  Japan,  came  to  me 
and  said  that  they  were  anxious  to  get  through 
to  Japan  via  Siberia  and  did  not  know  what  to 
do.  I  immediately  scribbled  a  note  to  the  Rus- 
sian Ambassador  asking  him  to  take  them  on  the 
train  with  him.  This,  and  the  ladies,  I  confided 
to  the  care  of  a  red-headed  page  boy  of  the  Em- 
bassy who  spoke  German.  By  some  miracle  he 
managed  to  get  them  to  the  railroad  station  be- 
fore the  Ambassador's  train  left,  the  Ambassador 
kindly  agreeing  to  take  them  with  him.  His 
train,  however,  instead  of  going  to  Russia,  was 
headed  for  Denmark;  and  from  there  the  two 
ladies  crossed  to  Sweden,  thence  to  England,  and 
so  home,  it  being  perhaps  as  well  for  them  that 
they  did  not  have  an  opportunity  to  attempt  the 
Siberian  journey  during  this  period  of  mobilisa- 
tion. 

The  Russian  Ambassador  reciprocated  by  con- 
fiding to  me  a  Russian  Princess  who  had  in- 
tended to  go  out  with  him  but  who,  intimidated, 
perhaps,  by  the  scenes  on  the  way  to  the  station, 
had  lost  her  nerve  at  the  railway  station  and 


THE  DAYS  BEFORE  THE  WAR 

refused  to  depart  with  the  Ambassador.  She 
remained  for  a  while  in  Berlin,  and  after  some 
weeks  recovered  sufficient  courage  to  make  the 
trip  to  Denmark. 

On  the  morning  of  August  fourth,  having  re- 
ceived an  invitation  the  day  before,  I  "attended" 
at  the  Palace  in  Berlin.  In  the  room  where  the 
court  balls  had  been  held  in  peace  times,  a  cer- 
tain number  of  the  members  of  the  Reichstag 
were  assembled.  The  diplomats  were  in  a  gal- 
lery on  the  west  side  of  the  room.  Soon  the 
Emperor,  dressed  in  field  grey  uniform  and  at- 
tended by  several  members  of  his  staff  and  a 
number  of  ladies,  entered  the  room.  He  walked 
with  a  martial  stride  and  glanced  toward  tho 
gallery  where  the  diplomats  were  assembled,  as 
if  to  see  how  many  were  there.  Taking  his  place 
upon  the  throne  and  standing,  he  read  an  address 
to  the  members  of  the  Reichstag.  The  members 
cheered  him  and  then  adjourned  to  the  Reichs- 
tag where  the  Chancellor  addressed  them, 
making  his  famous  declaration  about  Belgium, 
stating  that  "necessity  knew  no  law,"  and 
that  the  German  troops  were  perhaps  at  that  mo- 
ment crossing  the  Belgian  frontier.  Certain  laws 
which  had  been  prepared  with  reference  to  the 
government  of  the  country,  and  which  I  will  give 
in  more  detail  in  another  place,  as  well  as  the 
war  credit,  were  voted  upon  by  the  Reichstag. 

135 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

The  Socialists  had  not  been  present  in  the  Palace, 
but  joined  now  in  voting  the  necessary  credits. 

On  the  afternoon  of  August  fourth,  I  went  to 
see  von  Jagow  to  try  and  pick  up  any  news.  The 
British  Ambassador  sat  in  the  waiting-room  of 
the  Foreign  Office.  Sir  Edward  told  me  that  he 
was  there  for  the  purpose  of  asking  for  his  pass- 
ports. He  spoke  in  English,  of  course,  and  I  am 
sure  that  he  was  overheard  by  a  man  sitting  in 
the  room  who  looked  to  me  like  a  German  news- 
paper man,  so  that  I  was  not  surprised  when, 
late  in  the  afternoon,  extra  sheets  appeared  upon 
the  street  announcing  that  the  British  Ambas- 
sador had  asked  for  his  passports  and  that  Great 
Britain  had  declared  war. 

At  this  news  the  rage  of  the  population  of 
Berlin  was  indescribable.  The  Foreign  Office 
had  believed,  and  this  belief  had  percolated 
through  all  classes'  in  the  capital,  that  the  Eng- 
lish were  so  occupied  with  the  Ulster  rebellion 
and  unrest  in  Ireland  that  they  would  not  declare 
war. 

After  dinner  I  went  to  the  station  to  say  good- 
bye to  the  French  Ambassador,  Jules  Cambon, 
The  route  from  the  French  Embassy  by  the  Bran- 
derburg  Thor  to  the  Lehrter  railway  station  was 
lined  with  troops  and  police,  so  that  no  accident 
whatever  occurred.  There  was  no  one  at  the 
station  except  a  very  inferior  official  from  the 

136 


CROWDS    IX    FRONT    OF    THF.    EMBASSY    AWAITING    BULLETINS. 
AUGUST,    1914 


THE    AMERICAN    EMBASSY    WAS    THE    CENTRE    OF    INTEREST    TO    MANY 
IN  THOSE  IARLY  DAYS  OF  THI  WAR 


THE  DAYS  BEFORE  THE  WAR 

German  Foreign  Office.  Cambon  was  in  excel- 
lent spirits  and  kept  his  nerve  and  composure  ad- 
mirably. His  family,  luckily,  were  not  in  Berlin 
at  the  time  of  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  Cambon 
instead  of  being  sent  out  by  way  of  Switzerland, 
whence  of  course  the  road  to  France  was  easy, 
was  sent  North  to  Denmark.  He  was  very  badly 
treated  on  the  train,  and  payment  for  the  special 
train,  in  gold,  was  exacted  from  him  by  the  Ger- 
man government. 

Then  I  went  for  a  walk  about  Berlin,  soon  be- 
coming involved  in  the  great  crowd  in  front  of 
the  British  Embassy  on  the  Wilhelm  Strasse. 
The  crowd  threw  stones,  etc.,  and  managed  to 
break  all  the  windows  of  the  Embassy.  The 
Germans  charged  afterwards  that  people  in  the 
Embassy  had  infuriated  the  crowd  by  throwing 
pennies  to  them.  I  did  not  see  any  occurrences 
of  this  kind.  As  the  Unter  den  Linden  and  the 
Wilhelm  Platz  are  paved  with  asphalt  the  crowd 
must  have  brought  with  them  the  missiles  which 
they  used,  with  the  premeditated  design  of 
smashing  the  Embassy  windows.  A  few  mounted 
police  made  their  appearance  but  were  at  no  time 
in  sufficient  numbers  to  hold  the  crowd  in  check. 

Afterwards  I  went  around  to  the  Unter  den 
Linden  where  there  was  a  great  crowd  in  front 
of  the  Hotel  Adlon.  A  man  standing  on  the  out- 
skirts of  the  crowd  begged  me  not  to  go  into  the 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

hotel,  as  he  said  the  people  were  looking  for  Eng- 
lish newspaper  correspondents. 

So  threatening  was  the  crowd  towards  the 
English  correspondents  that  Wile  rang  uy  the 
porter  of  the  Embassy  after  we  had  gone  to  bed 
and,  not  wishing  to  disturb  us,  he  occupied  the 
lounge  in  the  porter's  rooms. 

Believing  that  possibly  the  British  Embassy 
might  be  in  such  a  condition  that  Sir  Edward 
Goscheri,  the  British  Ambassador,  might  not  care 
to  spena  the  night  there,  I  ordered  an  automobile 
and  went  up  through  the  crowd  which  still  choked 
the  Wilhelm  Strasse,  with  Holand  Harvey,  the 
Second  Secretary  to  the  British  Embassy.  Sir 
Edward  and  his  secretaries  were  perfectly  calm 
and  politely  declined  the  refuge  which  I  offered 
them  in  our  Embassy.  I  chatted  with  them  for 
a  while,  and,  as  I  was  starting  to  leave,  a  servant 
told  me  that  the  crowds  in  the  street  had  greatly 
increased  and  were  watching  my  automobile.  I 
sent  out  word  by  the  servant  to  open  the  automo- 
bile, as  it  was  a  landau,  and  to  tell  the  chauffeur, 
when  I  got  in,  to  drive  very  slowly. 

I  drove  slowly  through  the  crowd,  assailed  only 
by  the  peculiar  hissing  word  that  the  Germans 
use  when  they  are  especially  angry  and  which 
is  supposed  to  convey  the  utmost  contempt.  This 
word  is  "Pfui"  and  has  a  peculiar  effect  when 
hissed  out  from  thousands  of  Teutonic  throats. 

138 


THE  DAYS  BEFORE  THE  WAR 

As  we  left  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd,  a  man 
of  respectable  appearance  jumped  on  the  running 
board  of  the  automobile,  spit  at  me,  saying 
"Pfui"  and  struck  Harvey  in  the  face  with  his 
hat.  I  stopped  the  automobile,  jumped  out  and 
chased  this  man  down  the  street  and  caught  him.. 
My  German  footman  came  running  up  and 
explained  that  I  was  the  American  Ambassador 
and  not  an  Englishman.  The  man  who  struck 
Harvey  thereupon  apologised  and  gave  his  card. 
He  was  a  Berlin  lawyer  who  came  to  the  Embassy 
next  morning  and  apologised  again  for  his  "mis- 
take." 

The  following  day,  August  fifth,  I  spent  part 
of  the  time  taking  over  from  Sir  Edward  the 
British  interests.  Joseph  C.  Grew,  our  First  Sec- 
retary, and  I  went  to  the  British  Embassy ;  seals 
were  placed  upon  the  archives,  and  we  received 
such  instructions  and  information  as  could  be 
given  us,  with  reference  to  the  British  subjects 
in  Germany  and  their  interests.  The  British  cor- 
respondents were  collected  in  the  Embassy  and 
permission  was  obtained  for  them  to  leave  on  the 
Embassy  train. 

During  the  day  British  subjects,  without  dis- 
tinction as  to  age  or  sex,  were  seized,  wherever 
found,  and  sent  to  the  fortress  of  Spandau.  I 
remonstrated  with  von  Jagow  and  told  him  that 
that  was  a  measure  taken  only  in  the  Middle 

139 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

Ages,  and  I  believe  that  he  remonstrated  with 
the  authorities  and  arranged  for  a  cessation  of 
the  arbitrary  arrests  of  women. 

Frederick  W.  Wile,  the  well-known  American 
correspondent  of  the  London  Daily  Mail,  was  to 
go  out  also  with  the  British  party,  on  the  ground 
that  he  had  been  a  correspondent  of  a  British 
newspaper.  In  the  evening  I  went  to  the  Foreign 
Office  to  get  his  passport,  and,  while  one  of  the 
department  chiefs  was  signing  the  passport,  he 
stopped  in  the  middle  of  his  signature,  threw 
down  the  pen  on  the  table,  and  said  he  absolutely 
refused  to  sign  a  passport  for  Wile  because  he 
hated  him  so  and  because  he  believed  he  had  been 
largely  instrumental  in  the  bringing  about  of  the 
war.  Of  course  this  latter  statement  was  quite 
ridiculous,  but  it  took  me  some  time  before  I 
could  persuade  this  German  official  to  calm  his 
hate  and  complete  his  signature. 

I  have  heard  a  few  people  say  that  Wile  was 
unduly  fearful  of  what  the  Germans  might  do  to 
him,  but  the  foregoing  incident  shows  that  his 
fears  were  well  grounded,  and  knowing  of  this 
incident,  which  I  did  not  tell  him,  I  was  very  glad 
to  have  him  accept  the  hospitality  of  the  Embassy 
for  the  night  preceding  his  departure.  He  \vas 
perfectly  cool,  although  naturally  much  pleased 
when  I  informed  him  that  his  departure  had  been 
arranged. 

140 


THE  DAYS  BEFORE  THE  WAR 

Sir  Edward  and  his  staff  and  the  British  cor- 
respondents left  next  morning  early,  about  six 
A.  M.  No  untoward  incidents  occurred  at  the  time 
of  their  departure  which  was,  of  course,  unknown 
to  the  populace  of  Berlin. 

During  these  first  days  there  was  a  great  spy 
excitement  in  Germany.  People  were  seized  by 
the  crowds  in  the  streets  and,  in  some  instances, 
on  the  theory  that  they  were  French  or  Russian 
spies,  were  shot.  Foreigners  were  in  a  very  dan- 
gerous situation  throughout  Germany,  and  many 
Americans  were  subjected  to  arrest  and  indigni- 
ties. 

A  curious  rumour  spread  all  over  Germany  to 
the  effect  that  automobiles  loaded  with  French 
gold  were  being  rushed  across  the  country  to 
Russia.  Peasants  and  gamekeepers  and  others 
turned  out  on  the  roads  with  guns,  and  travelling 
by  automobile  became  exceedingly  dangerous. 
A  German  Countess  was  shot,  an  officer  wounded 
and  the  Duchess  of  Ratibor  was  shot  in  the  arm. 
It  was  sometime  before  this  excitement  was  al- 
layed, and  many  notices  were  published  in  the 
newspapers  before  this  mania  was  driven  from 
the  popular  brain. 

There  were  rumours  also  that  Russians  had 
poisoned  the  Muggelsee,  the  lake  from  whence 
Berlin  draws  part  of  its  water  supply.  There 
were  constant  rumours  of  the  arrest  of  Russian 

141 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

spies  disguised  as  women  throughout  Germany. 
Many  Americans  were  detained  under  a  sort 
of  arrest  in  their  hotels;  among  these  were 
Archer  Huntington  and  his  wife;  Charles  H. 
Sherrill,  formerly  our  minister  to  the  Argentine 
and  many  others. 


142 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  AMERICANS  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  Otf 
HOSTILITIES 

OF  course,  as  soon  as  there  was  a  prospect 
of  war,  the  Embassy  was  overrun  with 
Americans.  Few  Americans  had  taken  the  pre- 
caution of  travelling  with  passports,  and  pass- 
ports had  become  a  necessity.  All  of  the  Em- 
bassy force  and  all  the  volunteers  that  I  could 
prevail  upon  to  serve,  even  a  child  of  eleven 
years  old,  who  was  stopping  in  the  house  with 
us,  were  taking  applications  of  the  Americans 
who  literally  in  thousands  crowded  the  Wilhelm 
Platz  in  front  of  the  Embassy. 

The  question  of  money  became  acute.  Trav- 
ellers who  had  letters  of  credit  and  bank  checks 
for  large  sums  could  not  get  a  cent  of  money  in 
Germany.  The  American  Express  Company,  I 
believe,  paid  all  holders  of  its  checks.  When, 
with  Mr.  Wolf,  President  of  the  American 
Association  of  Commerce  and  Trade  in  Berlin, 
I  called  upon  the  director  of  the  Imperial 
Bank  and  begged  him  to  arrange  something 

143 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

for  the  relief  of  American  travellers  in  Ger- 
many, he  refused  to  do  anything;  and  I  then 
suggested  to  him  that  he  might  give  paper 
money,  which  they  were  then  printing  in  Ger- 
many, to  the  Americans  for  good  American  cred- 
its such  as  letters  of  credit  and  bank  checks, 
and  that  they  would  then  have  a  credit  in  Amer- 
ica which  might  become  very  valuable  in  the  fu- 
ture. He,  however,  refused  to  see  this.  Direc- 
tor Herbert  Gutmann  of  the  Dresdener  Bank 
was  the  far-seeing  banker  who  relieved  the  situa- 
tion. Gutmann  arranged  with  me  that  the  Dres- 
dener Bank,  the  second  largest  bank  in  Germany, 
would  cash  the  bank  checks,  letters  of  credit  and 
the  American  Express  Company's  drafts  and  in- 
ternational business  checks,  etc.,  of  Americans 
for  reasonable  amounts,  provided  the  Embassy 
seal  was  put  on  the  letter  of  credit  or  check  to 
show  that  the  holder  was  an  American,  and,  out- 
side of  Berlin,  the  seal  of  the  American  Consu- 
late. This  immediately  relieved  the  situation. 

With  the  exception  of  Mr.  Wolf  who  was, 
however,  quite  busy  with  his  own  affairs,  I  had 
no  American  Committees  such  as  were  organised 
in  London  and  Paris  to  help  me  in  Berlin.  In 
Munich,  however,  the  Americans  there  organised 
themselves  into  an  efficient  committee. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ralph  Pulitzer  were  in  Berlin 
and  immediately  went  to  work  in  our  Embassy. 

144 


Mr.  Pulitzer  busied  himself  at  giving  out  pass- 
ports and  Mrs.  Pulitzer  proved  herself  a  very 
efficient  worker.  She  and  Mrs.  Ruddock,  wife 
of  our  Third  Secretary,  and  Mrs.  Gherhardi,  wife 
of  the  Naval  Attache,  with  Mrs.  Gerard  formed 
a  sort  of  relief  committee  to  look  after  the  Amer- 
icans who  were  without  help  or  resources. 

I  arranged,  with  the  very  efficient  help  of 
Lanier  Winslow,  for  special  trains  to  carry  the 
Americans  in  Germany  to  Holland.  Trains  were 
run  from  Switzerland,  Munich  and  Carlsbad 
across  Germany  to  Holland,  and  from  Berlin 
were  run  a  number  of  trains  to  Holland. 

The  first  room  on  entering  the  Embassy  was 
the  ticket-office,  and  there,  first  Mr.  Winslow, 
and  afterwards  Captain  Fenton,  sold  tickets,  giv- 
ing tickets  free  to  those  who  were  certified  to  be 
without  funds  by  the  committee  of  Mrs.  Pulitzer 
and  Mrs.  Gerard.  This  committee  worked  on  the 
second  floor  of  the  Embassy  in  the  ballroom,  part 
of  it  being  roped  off  to  keep  the  crowds  back 
from  the  ladies. 

Each  week  I  bought  a  number  of  steerage  pas- 
sages from  the  Holland  American  Line  and  the 
ladies  resold  them  in  the  ballroom.  We  had  to 
do  this  because  the  Holland  American  Line  had 
no  licence  to  sell  steerage  tickets  in  Germany; 
but  by  buying  two  or  three  hundred  at  a  time 
direct  from  the  Company,  I  was  enabled  to  ped- 

145 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  INT  GERMANY 

die  tHem  out  in  our  ballroom  to  those  Americans 
who,  in  their  eagerness  to  reach  their  own  coun- 
try, were  willing  to  endure  the  discomforts  of 
travel  in  the  steerage. 

Winslow  accompanied  one  special  train  to  Hol- 
land, and  I  must  say  that  I  sympathised  with  him 
when  I  learned  of  what  he  had  to  do  in  the  way 
of  chasing  lost  hand-baggage  and  finding  milk 
for  crying  babies. 

These  special  trains  were  started  from  the 
Charlottenburg  station,  in  a  quiet  part  of  Berlin 
so  that  no  crowd  was  attracted  by  the  departure 
of  the  Americans.  The  Carlsbad  train  went 
through  very  successfully,  taking  the  Americans 
who  had  been  shut  up  in  Carlsbad  since  the  com- 
mencement of  the  war. 

One  of  the  curious  developments  of  this  time 
was  a  meeting  of  sympathy  for  the  Americans 
stranded  in  Germany,  held  in  the  town  hall  of 
Berlin  on  the  eleventh  of  August.  This  meeting 
was  commenced  in  one  of  the  meeting  rooms  of 
the  town  hall,  but  so  many  people  attended  that 
we  were  compelled  to  adjourn  to  the  great  hall. 
There  speeches  were  made  by  the  over-Burgo- 
master, von  Gwinner,  Professor  von  Harnack 
and  me.  Another  professor,  who  spoke  excel- 
lent English,  with  an  English  accent,  made  a 
bitter  attack  upon  England.  In  the  pamphlet  in 
which  the  speeches  of  Harnack  and  the  over- 

146 


AMERICANS  AT  THE  OUTBREAK 

Burgomaster  were  published  this  professor's 
speech  was  left  out.  In  his  speech  stating  the 
object  of  the  meeting,  the  over-Burgomaster 
said:  "Since  we  hear  that  a  large  number  of 
American  citizens  in  the  German  Empire,  and, 
especially,  in  Berlin,  find  themselves  in  embar- 
rassments due  to  the  shutting  off  of  means  of 
return  to  their  own  country,  we  here  solemnly 
declare  it  to  be  our  duty  to  care  for  them  as 
brethren  to  the  limit  of  our  ability,  and  we  appeal 
to  all  citizens  of  Berlin  and  the  whole  of  the 
German  Empire  to  co-operate  with  us  to  this 
end." 

Professor  von  Harnack,  head  of  the  Royal 
Library  in  Berlin,  is  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  Ger- 
man professors.  In  his  speech  he  gave  expres- 
sion to  the  feeling  that  was  prevalent  in  the  first 
days  of  the  war  that  Germany  was  defending  it- 
self against  a  Russian  invasion  which  threatened 
to  blot  out  the  German  Kultur.  He  said,  after 
referring  to  Western  civilisation:  "But  in  the 
face  of  this  civilisation,  there  arises  now  before 
my  eyes  another  civilisation,  the  civilisation  of 
the  tribe,  with  its  patriarchal  organisation,  the 
civilisation  of  the  horde  that  is  gathered  and 
kept  together  by  despots, — the  Mongolian  Mus- 
covite civilisation.  This  civilisation  could  not 
endure  the  light  of  the  eighteenth  century,  still 
less  the  light  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  now 

147 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

in  the  twentieth  century  it  breaks  loose  and 
threatens  us.  This  unorganised  Asiatic  mass, 
like  the  desert  with  its  sands,  wants  to  gather 
up  our  fields  of  grain." 

Nothing  was  done  for  the  Americans  stranded 
in  Germany  by  the  Germans  with  the  exception 
of  the  arrangements  for  the  payment  of  funds 
by  the  Dresdener  Bank  on  the  letters  of  credit 
and  the  dispatching  of  special  trains  by  the  rail- 
road department  of  the  German  government.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  nothing  more  could  have  been 
required  of  the  Germans,  as  it  was  naturally  the 
duty  of  the  American  government  to  take  care 
of  its  citizens  stranded  abroad. 

Almost  the  instant  that  war  was  declared,  I 
cabled  to  our  government  suggesting  that  a  ship 
should  be  sent  over  with  gold  because,  of  course, 
with  gold,  no  matter  what  the  country,  neces- 
saries can  always  be  bought.  Rumours  of  the 
dispatch  of  the  Tennessee  and  other  ships  from 
America,  reached  Berlin  and  a  great  number  of 
the  more  ignorant  of  the  Americans  got  to  be- 
lieve that  these  ships  were  being  sent  over  to 
take  Americans  home. 

One  morning  an  American  woman  spoke  to  me 
and  said  she  would  consent  to  go  home  on  one  of 
these  ships  provided  she  was  given  a  state-room 
with  a  bath  and  Walker-Gordon  milk  for  her 
children,  while  another  woman  of  German  ex- 

148 


WORKING    IN    THE   EMBASSY    BALLROOM    AT    THE   OUTBREAK 
OF   HOSTILITIES,   AUGUST,    IQI4 


WAR    DAYS    IN    BERLIN.       AMBASSADOR    GERARD    AND    HIS    STAFF 


AMERICANS  AT  THE  OUTBREAK 

traction  used  to  sit  for  hours  in  a  corner  of  the 
ballroom,  occasionally  exclaiming  aloud  with 
much  feeling,  "O  God,  will  them  ships  never 
come  ?" 

In  these  first  days  of  the  war  we  also  made  a 
card  index  of  all  the  Americans  in  Berlin,  and, 
so  far  as  possible,  in  Germany;  in  order  to  weed 
out  those  who  had  received  the  passports  in  the 
first  days  when  possibly  some  people  not  entitled 
to  them  received  them,  and  to  find  the  deserving 
cases.  All  Americans  were  required  to  present 
themselves  at  the  Embassy  and  answer  a  few 
questions,  after  which,  if  everything  seemed  all 
right,  their  passports  were  marked  "recom- 
mended for  transportation  to  America." 

I  sent  out  circulars  from  time  to  time  to  the 
consuls  throughout  Germany  giving  general  in- 
structions with  regard  to  the  treatment  of  Amer- 
icans. The  following  circular  sent  out  on  August 
twelfth  is  a  sample: 

"AMERICAN  EMBASSY,, 

BERLIN,  August  12,  1914. 
"To  the  Consular  Representatives 

of  the  United  States  in  Germany, 

and  for  the  general  information  of 

American  Citizens. 

"A  communication  will  to-morrow  be  pub- 
lished in  the  Berlin  Lokal  Anzeiger  regarding  the 

149 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

sending  of  a  special  train  to  the  Dutch  frontier 
for  the  special  conveyance  of  Americans.  Other 
trains  will  probably  be  arranged  for  from  time  to 
time.  No  further  news  has  been  received  re- 
garding the  sending  of  transports  from  the 
United  States,  but  applications  for  repatriation 
are  being  considered  by  the  Embassy  and  the 
various  consular  offices  throughout  Germany 
according  to  the  Embassy's  last  circular  and  the 
announcements  published  in  the  Lokal  Anzeiger. 

"All  Americans  leaving  Berlin  must  have  their 
passports  stamped  by  the  Foreign  Office,  for 
which  purpose  they  should  apply  to  Geheimer 
Legationsrat  Dr.  Eckhardt  at  Wilhelmstrasse 
76.  Americans  residing  outside  of  Berlin  should 
ascertain  from  their  respective  consular  represen- 
tatives what  steps  they  should  take  in  this  re- 
gard. 

"Letters  for  the  United  States  may  be  sent  to 
the  Embassy  and  will  be  forwarded  at  the  first 
opportunity. 

"German  subjects  who  desire  to  communicate 
with  friends  in  England,  Russia,  France  or  Bel- 
gium, or  who  desire  to  send  money,  should  make 
their  requests  to  the  Imperial  Foreign  Office. 
Americans  are  permitted  to  enter  Italy.  The 
steamers  of  the  Italian  lines  are  running  at  pres- 
ent, but  are  full  for  some  time  in  advance.  The 
Embassy  is  also  informed  that  the  steamer  from 

150 


AMERICANS  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  | 

Vlissingen,  Holland,  runs  daily  at  n  A.  M.    The 
Ambassador  cannot,  however,  recommend  Amer- 
icans to  try  to  reach  Holland  by  the  ordinary 
schedule  trains,  as  he  has  received  reports  of  ( 
delays  en  route,  owing  to  the  fact  that  all  civil 
travellers  are  ejected  from  trains  when  troops 
require  accommodations.    It  is  better  to  wait  for, 
special  trains  arranged  for  by  the  Embassy. 

"The  Dresdener  Bank  and  its  branches 
throughout  Germany  will  cash  for  Americans 
only  letters  of  credit  and  checks  issued  by  good 
American  banks  in  limited  amounts.  Included 
in  this  category  are  the  checks  of  the  Bankers' 
Association,  Bankers'  Trust  Company,  Interna- 
tional Mercantile  Marine  Company,  and  Amer- 
ican Express  Company.  All  checks  and  letters 
of  credit  must,  however,  be  stamped  by  Amer- 
ican consuls,  and  consuls  must  see  that  the  con- 
sular stamp  is  affixed  to  those  checks  and  let- 
ters of  credit  only  as  are  the  bona  fide  property 
of  American  citizens.  The  Commerz  &  Disconto 
Bank  makes  the  same  offer  and  the  Deutsche 
Bank  will  cash  checks  and  letters  of  credit  drawn 
by  its  correspondents. 

"American  consular  officers  may  also  draw 
later  on  the  Dresdener  Bank  for  their  salaries 
and  the  official  expenses  of  their  consulates.  Be- 
fore drawing  such  funds  from  the  bank,  how- 
ever, all  consular  officers  should  submit  their  ex- 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

pense  accounts  to  me  for  approval.  These  ex- 
pense accounts  should  be  transmitted  to  the  Em- 
bassy at  the  earliest  opportunity. 

is  AMBASSADOR." 


It  will  be  noticed  from  the  above  circular  that 
all  Americans  were  required  to  have  their  pass- 
ports stamped  at  the  Foreign  Office.  One  Amer- 
ican did  not  receive  back  his  passport,  although 
he  had  left  it  at  the  Foreign  Office.  The  For- 
eign Office  claimed  that  it  had  delivered  the  pass- 
port to  some  one  from  the  Embassy,  but  we  were 
not  very  much  surprised  when  this  identical  pass- 
port turned  up  later  in  the  possession  of  Lodi,  the 
confessed  German  spy,  who  was  shot  in  the 
Tower  of  London. 

After  a  time  the  American  Government  cabled 
me  to  advance  money  to  destitute  Americans;  and 
the  ladies  in  the  ballroom,  with  their  assistants, 
attended  to  this  branch,  advancing  money  where 
needed  or  so  much  as  a  person  needed  to  make  up 
the  balance  of  passage  on  steerage  tickets  from 
Holland  to  the  United  States.  At  the  same  time 
we  gradually  built  up  a  banking  system.  Those 
in  the  United  States  who  had  friends  or  rela- 
tives in  Germany  sent  them  money  by  giving  the 
money  to  our  State  Department,  and  the  State 
Department  in  turn  cabled  me  to  make  a  pay- 
ment. This  payment  was  made  by  my  drawing 

152 


AMERICANS  AT  THE  OUTBREAK 

a  draft  for  the  amount  stated  on  the  State  De- 
partment, the  recipient  selling  this  draft  at  a 
fixed  rate  to  the  Deutsche  Bank  in  Berlin.  This 
business  assumed  great  proportions,  and  after 
the  Americans  who  were  in  a  hurry  to  go  home 
had  disappeared,  the  ones  remaining  were  kept 
in  funds  by  their  friends  and  relatives  through 
this  sort  of  bank  under  our  management. 

On  August  twenty-third,  Assistant  Secretary 
of  War  Breckenridge,  who  had  come  from 
America  on  the  warship  Tennessee,  bringing  gold 
with  him,  and  a  certain  number  of  army  officers, 
arrived  in  Berlin  and  took  over  our  relief  organ- 
isation in  so  far  as  it  applied  to  the  repatriation 
of  Americans,  housing  it  in  rooms  hired  in  a 
nearby  hotel,  the  Kaiserhoff.  This  commission 
was  composed  of  Majors  J.  A.  Ryan,  J.  H.  Ford 
and  G.  W.  Martin  and  Captains  Miller  and  Fen- 
ton,  but  the  relief  committee  and  the  banking 
office  were  still  continued  in  the  Embassy  ball- 
room. 

A  bulletin  was  published  under  the  auspices 
of  the  American  Association  of  Commerce  and 
Trade  and  the  advice  there  given  was  that  all 
Americans  having  the  means  to  leave  should  do 
so  when  the  opportunity  for  leaving  by  special 
trains  was  presented,  and  proceed  direct  to  Lon- 
don whence  they  could  obtain  transportation  to 
the  United  States.  All  Americans  without  means 

153 


were  directed  to  apply  to  the  relief  commission 
which  was  authorized  to  pay  for  the  transporta- 
tion and  subsistence  of  stranded  Americans  in 
order  to  enable  them  to  return  home.  . 

The  enormous  quantity  of  baggage  left  behind 
by  Americans  in  Germany  was  a  problem  requir- 
ing solution. 

In  spite  of  repeated  advice  to  leave,  many 
Americans  insisted  on  remaining  in  Germany. 
Few  of  them  were  business  people;  there  were 
many  song-birds,  piano  players,  and  students. 
We  had  much  trouble  with  these  belated  Amer- 
icans. For  example,  one  woman  and  her  daugh- 
ter refused  to  leave  when  advised,  but  stayed  on 
and  ran  up  bills  for  over  ten  thousand  marks ;  and 
as  arrest  for  debt  exists  in  Germany,  they  could 
not  leave  when  they  finally  decided  to  go.  All  of 
us  in  the  Embassy  had  to  subscribe  the  money 
necessary  to  pay  their  most  pressing  debts  and 
they  finally  left  the  country,  leaving;  an  added 
prejudice  against  Americans. 


154 


CHAPTER  X 

PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

DURING  the  period  of  the  first  months  of 
the  war,  in  addition  to  other  work,  it  be- 
came necessary  to  look  after  those  subjects  of 
other  nations  who  had  been  confided  to  my  care. 

At  first  the  British  were  allowed  considerable 
liberty,  although  none  were  permitted  to  leave  the 
country.  They  were  required  to  report  to  the 
police  at  stated  times  during  the  day  and  could 
not  remain  out  late  at  night 

The  Japanese  had  received  warning  from  their 
Embassy  as  to  the  turn  that  events  might  take 
and,  before  sending  its  ultimatum,  the  Japanese 
government  had  warned  its  citizens,  so  that  a 
great  number  of  them  had  left  Germany.  After 
the  declaration  of  war  by  Japan,  all  the  Japanese 
in  Germany  were  immediately  imprisoned.  This 
was  stated  to  be  in  order  to  save  them  from  the 
fury  of  the  population  and  certainly  the  people 
seemed  to  be  greatly  incensed  against  the 
Japanese.  When  I  finally  obtained  permission 
for  their  release  and  departure  from  Germany 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

I  had  to  send  some  one  with  the  parties  of  Japa- 
nese to  the  Swiss  frontier  in  order  to  protect 
them  from  injury.  They  were  permitted  to  leave 
only  through  Switzerland  and,  therefore,  had  to 
change  cars  at  Munich.  Before  sending  any  of 
them  to  Munich  I  invariably  telegraphed  our 
Consul  there  to  notify  the  Munich  police  so  that 
proper  protection  could  be  provided  at  the  rail- 
way station. 

On  one  occasion  a  number  of  Japanese  were 
waiting  in  the  Embassy  in  order  to  take  the  night 
train  for  Munich.  I  sent  a  servant  to  take  them 
out  in  order  that  they  might  get  something  to  eat 
in  a  restaurant,  but  as  no  restaurant  in  Berlin 
would  sell  them  food,  arrangements  were  made 
to  give  them  meals  in  the  Embassy. 

The  members  of  the  Siamese  Legation,  wrho  in 
appearance  greatly  resemble  the  Japanese,  were 
often  subjected  to  indignities,  and  for  a  long  time 
did  not  dare  move  about  freely  in  Berlin,  or  even 
leave  their  houses. 

The  Japanese  were  marvels  of  courtesy. 
After  I  visited  some  of  them  at  the  civilian  camp 
of  Ruhleben,  they  wrote  me  a  letter  thanking  me 
for  the  visit.  Nearly  every  Japanese  leaving 
Germany  on  his  arrival  in  Switzerland  wrote  me 
a  grateful  letter. 

When  I  finally  left  Germany,  as  I  stepped  from 
the  special  train  at  Zurich,  a  Japanese  woman, 

156 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

who  had  been  imprisoned  in  Germany  and  whose 
husband  I  had  visited  in  a  prison,  came  forward 
to  thank  me.  A  Japanese  man  was  waiting  in 
the  hotel  office  in  Berne  when  I  arrived  there,  for 
a  similar  purpose,  and  the  next  morning  early 
the  Japanese  Minister  called  and  left  a  beautiful 
clock  for  Mrs.  Gerard  as  an  expression  of  his 
gratitude  for  the  attention  shown  to  his  coun- 
trymen. It  was  really  a  pleasure  to  be  able  to  do 
something  for  these  polite  and  charming  people. 
On  August  twentieth  I  paid  my  first  visit  to 
a  German  prison  camp.  This  was  to  the  camp 
at  Doeberitz  situated  about  eight  miles  west  of 
Berlin,  a  sort  of  military  camp  with  permanent 
barracks.  Some  of  these  barracks  were  used  for 
the  confinement  of  such  British  civilians  as  the 
Germans  had  arrested  in  the  first  days  of  the 
war.  There  were  only  a  few  British  among  the 
prisoners,  with  a  number  of  Russian  and  French. 
I  was  allowed  to  converse  freely  with  the  pris- 
oners and  found  that  they  had  no  complaints.  As 
the  war  went  on,  however,  a  number  of  British 
prisoners  of  war  were  taken  by  the  Germans  dur- 
ing the  course  of  the  great  retreat  of  the  British 
in  Northern  France.  Then  officers  and  privates 
began  to  come  into  Germany  and  were  distrib- 
uted in  various  camps.  Finally,  in  the  autumn  of 
1914,  the  British  Government  decided  on  intern- 
ing a  great  number  of  Germans  in  England;  and 

157 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

the  German  government  immediately,  and  as  a 
reprisal,  interned  all  the  British  civilian  men  who, 
up  to  this  time,  had  enjoyed  comparative  freedom 
in  Berlin  and  other  cities  of  the  Empire.  The 
British  civilians  were  shut  up  in  a  race  track 
about  five  miles  from  the  centre  of  Berlin,  called 
Ruhleben.  This  race  track  in  peace  times  was 
used  for  contests  of  trotting  horses  and  on  it 
were  the  usual  grandstands  and  brick  stable 
buildings  containing  box  stalls  with  hay  lofts 
above,  where  the  race  horses  were  kept 

On  August  twentieth  I  paid  my  first  visit  to 
the  police  presidency  in  Berlin  where  political 
prisoners,  when  arrested,  were  confined.  A  small 
number  of  English  prisoners  subject  to  especial 
investigation  were  there  interned.  This  prison, 
which  I  often  subsequently  visited,  was  clean  and 
well  kept,  and  I  never  had  any  particular  com- 
plaints from  the  prisoners  confined  there,  except, 
of  course,  as  the  war  progressed,  concerning  the 
inadequacy  of  the  food. 

I  had  organised  a  special  department  immedi- 
ately on  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  to  care  for 
the  interests  of  the  English.  At  first  Mr.  Boyls- 
ton  Beal,  a  lawyer  of  Boston,  assisted  by  Mr. 
Rivington  Pyne  of  New  York,  was  at  the  head 
of  this  department,  of  which  later  the  Honourable 
John  B.  Jackson,  formerly  our  Minister  to  the 
Balkan  States,  Greece  and  Cuba,  took  charge. 

158 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

He  volunteered  to  give  his  assistance  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  war  and  I  was  glad  of  his  help, 
especially  as  he  had  been  twelve  years  secretary 
in  the  Berlin  Embassy  and,  therefore,  was  well 
acquainted  not  only  with  Germany  but  with  Ger- 
man official  life  and  customs.  Mr.  Jackson  was 
most  ably  assisted  by  Charles  H.  Russell,  Jr.,  of 
New  York,  and  Lithgow  Osborne.  Of  course, 
others  in  the  Embassy  had  much  to  do  with  this 
department. 

The  first  privates,  prisoners  of  war,  came  to 
the  camp  of  Doeberitz  near  Berlin.  Early  in  the 
war  Mr.  Grew,  our  First  Secretary,  and  Consul 
General  Lay  visited  the  camp  for  officers  at  Tor- 
'gau.  The  question  of  the  inspection  of  prisoners 
of  the  camps  and  the  rights  of  Ambassadors 
charged  with  the  interests  of  hostile  powers  was 
quite  in  the  clouds.  So  many  reports  came  to 
Germany  about  the  bad  treatment  in  England  of 
German  prisoners  of  war  that  I  finally  arranged 
to  have  Mr.  Jackson  visit  England  and  report. 
This  was  arranged  by  my  colleague,  our  Ambas- 
sador to  England,  and  in  the  first  winter  Mr. 
Jackson  made  his  trip  to  England.  His  report 
of  conditions  there  did  much  to  allay  the  German 
belief  as  to  the  ill-treatment  of  their  subjects  who 
were  prisoners  in  England  and  helped  me  greatly 
in  bringing  about  better  conditions  in  Germany. 
After  vainly  endeavouring  to  get  the  German 

159 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

government  to  agree  to  some  definite  plan  for  the 
inspection  of  the  prisoners,  after  my  notes 
to  the  Foreign  Office  had  remained  unanswered 
for  a  long  period  of  time,  and  after  sending  a 
personal  letter  to  von  Jagow  calling  his  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  delay  was  injuring  German 
prisoners  in  other  countries,  I  finally  called  on 
the  Chancellor  and  told  him  that  my  notes  con- 
cerning prisoners  were  sent  by  the  Foreign  Of- 
fice to  the  military  authorities :  that,  while  I  could 
talk  with  officials  of  the  Foreign  Office,  I  never 
came  into  contact  with  the  people  who  really 
passed  upon  the  notes  sent  by  me,  and  who  made 
the  decisions  as  to  the  treatment  of  prisoners  of 
war  and  inspection  of  their  camps ;  and  I  begged 
the  Chancellor  to  break  down  diplomatic  prece- 
dent and  allow  me  to  speak  with  the  military 
authorities  who  decided  these  questions.  I 
said,  "If  I  cannot  get  an  answer  to  my  proposi- 
tion about  prisoners,  I  will  take  a  chair  and  sit 
in  front  of  your  palace  in  the  street  until  I  re- 
ceive an  answer." 

The  result  was  a  meeting  in  my  office. 

I  discussed  the  question  involved  with  two  rep- 
resentatives from  the  Foreign  Office,  two  from 
the  General  Staff,  two  from  the  War  Depart- 
ment and  with  Count  Schwerin  who  commanded 
the  civilian  camp  at  the  Ruhleben  race  track.  In 
twenty  minutes  we  managed  to  reach  an  agree- 

160 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

ment  which  I  then  and  there  drew  up:  the  sub- 
stance of  which,  as  between  England  and  Ger- 
many, was  that  the  American  Ambassador  and 
his  representatives  in  Germany  and  the  American 
Ambassador  and  his  representatives  in  England 
should  have  the  right  to  visit  the  prison  camps  on 
giving  reasonable  notice,  which  was  to  be  twenty- 
four  hours  where  possible,  and  should  have  the 
right  to  converse  with  the  prisoners,  within  sight 
but  out  of  hearing,  of  the  camp  officials;  that  an 
endeavour  should  be  made  to  adjust  matters  com- 
plained of  with  the  camp  authorities  before 
bringing  them  to  the  notice  of  higher  authori- 
ties; that  ten  representatives  should  be  named 
by  our  Ambassador  and  that  these  should  receive 
passes  enabling  them  to  visit  the  camps  under 
the  conditions  above  stated.  This  agreement  was 
ratified  by  the  British  and  German  governments 
and  thereafter  for  a  long  time  we  worked  under 
its  provisions  and  in  most  questions  dealt  direct 
with  the  War  Department. 

Of  course,  before  this  meeting  I  had  managed 
to  get  permission  to  visit  the  camps  of  Ruhleben 
and  Doeberitz  near  Berlin;  and  Mr.  Michaelson, 
our  consul  at  Cologne,  and  Mr.  Jackson  and 
others  at  the  Embassy  had  been  permitted  to  visit 
certain  camps.  But  immediately  preceding  the 
meeting  on  the  fourth  of  March  and  while 
matters  were  still  being  discussed  we  were  com- 

161 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

pelled  to  a  certain  extent  to  suspend  our  visits. 

In  the  first  days  of  the  war  it  was  undoubtedly 
and  unfortunately  true  that  prisoners  of  war 
taken  by  the  Germans,  both  at  the  time  of  their 
capture  and  in  transit  to  the  prison  camps,  were 
often  badly  treated  by  the  soldiers,  guards  or  the 
civil  population. 

The  instances  were  too  numerous,  the  evidence 
too  overwhelming,  to  be  denied.  In  the  prison 
camps  themselves, owing  to  the  peculiar  system  of 
military  government  in  Germany,  the  treatment 
of  the  prisoners  varied  greatly.  As  I  have,  I  think, 
stated  in  another  place,  Germany  is  divided  into 
army  corps  districts.  Over  each  of  these  dis- 
tricts is,  in  time  of  war,  a  representative  corps 
commander  who  is  clothed  with  absolute  power 
in  that  district,  his  orders  superseding  those  of 
all  civilian  officials.  These  corps  commanders 
do  not  report  to  the  war  department  but  are  in 
a  measure  independent  and  very  jealous  of  their 
rights.  For  instance,  to  show  the  difficulty  of 
dealing  with  these  corps  commanders,  after  my 
arrangements  concerning  the  inspection  of  pris- 
oners of  war  had  been  ratified  by  both  the  Im- 
perial and  British  governments,  I  went  to  Halle 
to  inspect  the  place  of  detention  for  officers  there. 
Halle  is  some  hours  from  Berlin  and  when  I  had 
driven  out  to  the  camp,  I  was  met  by  the  com- 
mander who  told  me  that  I  might  visit  the  camp 

162 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

but  that  I  could  not  speak  to  the  prisoners  out  of 
hearing.  I  told  him  that  our  arrangement  was 
otherwise,  but,  as  he  remained  firm,  I  returned  to 
Berlin.  I  complained  to  the  Foreign  Office  and 
was  told  there  that  the  matter  would  be  arranged 
and  so  I  again,  some  days  later,  returned  to 
Halle.  My  experience  on  the  second  trip  was  ex- 
actly the  -same  as  the  first.  I  spoke  to  von  Jagow 
who  explained  the  situation  to  me,  and  advised 
me  to  visit  first  the  corps  commander  at  Magde- 
burg and  try  and  arrange  the  matter  with  him. 
I  did  so  and  was  finally  permitted  to  visit  this 
camp  and  to  talk  to  the  officers  out  of  ear-shot. 

This  camp  of  Halle  was  continued  during  the 
war,  although  not  at  all  a  fit  place  for  the  deten- 
tion of  officers,  who  were  lodged  in  the  old  fac- 
tory buildings  surrounded  by  a  sort  of  courtyard 
covered  with  cinders.  This  building  was  situated 
in  the  industrial  part  of  the  town  of  Halle. 
There  was  no  opportunity  for  recreation  or 
games,  although  several  enterprising  officers  had 
tried  to  arrange  a  place  where  they  could  knock 
a  tennis  ball  against  the  wall. 

It  was  the  policy  of  the  Germans  to  put  some 
prisoners  of  each  nation  in  each  camp.  This  was 
probably  so  that  no  claim  could  be  made  that  the 
prisoners  from  one  nation  among  the  Allies  were 
treated  better  or  worse  than  the  prisoners  from 
another  nation. 

163 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

In  the  beginning  of  the  war  the  Germans  were 
surprised  by  the  great  number  of  prisoners  taken 
and  had  made  no  adequate  preparations  for  their 
reception.  Clothing  and  blankets  were  woefully 
wanting,  so  I  immediately  bought  what  I  could 
in  the  way  of  underclothes  and  blankets  at  the 
large  department  stores  of  Berlin  and  the  whole- 
salers and  sent  these  to  the  camps  where  the  Brit- 
ish prisoners  were  confined.  I  also  sent  to  the 
Doeberitz  camp  articles  such  as  sticks  for 
wounded  men  who  were  recovering,  and  crutches, 
and  even  eggs  and  other  nourishing  delicacies  for 
the  sick. 

At  first  the  prisoners  were  not  compelled  to 
work  to  any  extent,  but  at  the  time  I  left  Ger- 
many the  two  million  prisoners  of  war  were  ma- 
terially assisting  the  carrying  on  of  the  agricul- 
ture and  industries  of  the  Empire. 

The  League  of  Mercy  of  New  York  having 
telegraphed  me  in  1914,  asking  in  what  way 
funds  could  best  be  used  in  the  war,  I  suggested 
in  answer  that  funds  for  the  prisoners  of  war 
were  urgently  needed.  Many  newspapers  poked 
fun  at  me  for  this  suggestion,  and  one  bright  edi- 
tor said  that  if  the  Germans  did  not  treat  their 
prisoners  properly  they  should  be  made  to!  Of 
course,  unless  this  particular  editor  had  sailed 
up  the  Spree  in  a  canoe  and  bombarded  the 
royal  palace,  I  know  of  no  other  way  of  "mak- 

164 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

ing"  the  Germans  do  anything.  The  idea,  how- 
ever, of  doing  some  work  for  the  prisoners  of 
war  was  taken  up  by  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association.  Dr.  John  R.  Mott  was  at  the  head 
of  this  work  and  was  most  ably  and  devotedly 
assisted  by  the  Rev.  Archibald  C.  Harte.  I  shall 
give  an  account  of  their  splendid  work  in  a  chap- 
ter devoted  to  the  charitable  work  of  the  war. 

At  only  one  town  in  Germany  was  any  interest 
in  the  fate  of  the  prisoners  of  war  evinced.  This 
was,  I  am  glad  to  say,  in  the  quaint  university 
town  of  Gottingen.  I  visited  this  camp  with  Mr. 
Harte,  in  April,  1915,  to  attend  the  opening  of 
the  first  Y.  M.  C.  A.  camp  building  in  Germany. 
The  camp  was  commanded  by  Colonel  Bogen,  an 
officer  strict  in  his  discipline,  but,  as  all  the  pris- 
oners admitted,  just  in  his  dealings  with  them. 
There  were,  as  I  recall,  about  seven  thousand 
prisoners  in  this  camp,  Russian,  French,  Belgian 
and  English.  It  is  a  pity  that  the  methods  of 
Colonel  Bogen  and  his  arrangements  for  camp 
buildings,  etc.,  were  not  copied  in  other  camps  in 
Germany.  Here,  as  I  have  said,  the  civil  popula- 
tion took  some  interest  in  the  fate  of  the  unfortu- 
nate prisoners  within  their  gates,  led  in  this  by 
several  professors  in  the  University.  The  most 
active  of  these  professors  was  Professor  Stange 
who,  working  with  a  French  lawyer  who  had 
been  captured  near  Arras  while  in  the  Red  Cross, 

165 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

provided  a  library  for  the  prisoners  and  other- 
wise helped  them.  Of  course,  these  charitable 
acts  of  Professor  Stange  did  not  find  favor  with 
many  of  his  fellow  townsmen  of  Gottingen,  and 
he  was  not  surprised  when  he  awoke  one  morn- 
ing to  find  that  during  the  night  his  house  had 
been  painted  red,  white  and  blue,  the  colours  of 
France,  England  and  America. 

I  heard  of  so  many  instances  of  the  annoyance 
of  prisoners  by  the  civil  population  that  I  was 
quite  pleased  one  day  to  read  a  paragraph  in  the 
official  newspaper,  the  North  German  Gazette, 
which  ran  somewhat  as  follows :  "The  following 
inhabitants  of  (naming  a  small  town  near  the 
borders  of  Denmark),  having  been  guilty  of  im- 
proper conduct  towards  prisoners  of  war,  have 
been  sentenced  to  the  following  terms  of  impris- 
onment and  the  following  fines  and  their  names 
are  printed  here  in  order  that  they  may  be  held 
up  to  the  contempt  of  all  future  generations  of 
Germans."  And  then  followed  a  list  of  names 
and  terms  of  imprisonment  and  fines.  I  thought 
that  this  was  splendid,  that  the  German  govern- 
ment had  at  last  been  aroused  to  the  necessity  of 
protecting  their  prisoners  of  war  from  the  an- 
noyances of  the  civil  population,  and  I  wrote  to 
our  consul  in  Kiel  and  asked  him  to  investigate 
the  case.  From  him  I  learned  that  some  unfortu- 
nate prisoners  passing  through  the  town  (in  a 

1 66 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

part  of  Germany  inhabited  by  Scandinavians) 
had  made  signs  that  they  were  suffering  from 
hunger  and  thirst,  that  some  of  the  kind-hearted 
people  among  the  Scandinavian  population  had 
given  them  something  to  eat  and  drink  and  for 
this  they  were  condemned  to  fines,  to  prison  and 
to  have  their  names  held  up  to  the  contempt  of 
Germans  for  all  time. 

I  do  not  know  of  any  one  thing  that  can  give 
a  better  idea  of  the  official  hate  for  the  nations 
with  which  Germany  was  at  war  than  this. 

The  day  after  visiting  the  camp  at  Gottingen, 
I  visited  the  officers'  camp  situated  at  the  town 
of  Hanover  Miinden.  Here  about  eight  hundred 
officers,  of  whom  only  thirteen  were  British,  were 
confined  in  an  old  factory  building  situated  on 
the  bank  of  the  river  below  the  town.  The  Rus- 
sian officers  handed  me  some  arrows  tipped  with 
nails  which  had  been  shot  at  them  by  the  kind- 
hearted  little  town  boys,  and  the  British  pointed 
out  to  me  the  filthy  conditions  of  the  camp.  In 
this,  as  in  unfortunately  many  other  officer 
camps,  the  inclination  seemed  to  be  to  treat  the 
officers  not  as  captured  officers  and  gentlemen, 
but  as  convicts.  I  had  quite  a  sharp  talk  with 
the  commander  of  this  camp  before  leaving  and 
he  afterwards  took  violent  exception  tc  the  re- 
port which  I  made  upon  his  camp.  However,  I 
am  pleased  to  say  that  he  reformed,  as  it  were, 

167 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

and  I  was  informed  by  my  inspectors  that  he  had 
finally  made  his  camp  one  of  the  best  in  Ger- 
many. 

Much  as  I  should  have  liked  to,  I  could  not 
spend  much  time  myself  in  visiting  the  prison 
camps;  many  duties  and  frequent  crises  kept  me 
in  Berlin,  but  members  of  the  Embassy  were  al- 
ways travelling  in  this  work  of  camp  inspection. 

For  some  time  my  reports  were  published  in 
parliamentary  "White  Papers,"  but  in  the  end 
our  government  found  that  the  publication  of 
these  reports  irritated  the  Germans  to  such  a 
degree  that  the  British  Government  was  re- 
quested not  to  publish  them  any  more.  Copies  of 
the  reports  were  always  sent  by  me  both  to  Wash- 
ington and  to  London,  and  handed  to  the  Berlin 
Foreign  Office. 

While  Winston  Churchill  was  at  the  head  of 
the  British  Admiralty,  it  was  stated  that  the 
German  submarine  prisoners  would  not  be 
treated  as  ordinary  prisoners  of  war ;  but  would 
be  put  in  a  place  by  themselves  on  the  ground 
that  they  were  pirates  and  murderers,  and  not 
entitled  to  the  treatment  accorded  in  general  to 
prisoners  of  war.  Great  indignation  was  excited 
by  this  in  Germany ;  the  German  government  im- 
mediately seized  thirty-seven  officers,  picking 
those  whom  they  supposed  related  to  the  most 
prominent  families  in  England,  and  placed  them 

168 


SUMMER 


NUMBER 


AN-  ILLU5TRATED-PERI ODIC  A  L 


A    COVER    OF    THE    MONTHLY    ISSUED    BY    THE    RUHLEBEX    PRISONERS 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

in  solitary  confinement.  A  few  were  confined  in 
this  way  in  Cologne,  but  the  majority  were  put 
in  the  ordinary  jails  of  Magdeburg  and  Burg. 

As  soon  as  I  heard  of  this,  accompanied  by  Mr. 
Charles  H.  Russell,  Jr.,  of  my  staff,  I  went  to 
Magdeburg,  using  my  ordinary  pass  for  the  vis- 
iting of  prisoners.  The  German  authorities  told 
me  afterwards  that  if  they  had  known  I  was 
going  to  make  this  visit  they  would  not  have  per- 
mitted it,  but  on  this  occasion  the  corps  com- 
mander system  worked  for  me.  Accompanied  by 
an  adjutant,  in  peace  times  a  local  lawyer  from 
the  corps  commander's  office  in  Magdeburg,  and 
other  officers,  I  visited  these  British  officers  in 
their  cells  in  the  common  jail  at  Magdeburg. 
They  were  in  absolutely  solitary  confinement, 
each  in  a  small  cell  about  eleven  feet  long  and 
four  feet  wide.  Some  cells  were  a  little  larger, 
and  the  prisoners  were  allowed  only  one  hour's 
exercise  a  day  in  the  courtyard  of  the  prison. 
The  food  given  them  was  not  bad,  but  the  close 
confinement  was  very  trying,  especially  to  Lieu- 
tenant Goschen,  son  of  the  former  Ambassador 
to  Germany,  who  had  been  wounded  and  in  the 
hospital  at  Douai.  Among  them  I  found  an  old 
acquaintance,  Captain  Robin  Grey,  who  had  been 
often  in  New  York.  The  German  authorities 
agreed  to  correct  several  minor  matters  of  which 
the  officers  complained  and  then  we  went  to  the 

169 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

neighbouring  town  of  Burg,  where  other  officers 
were  confined  in  the  same  manner  and  under 
similar  conditions  in  the  ordinary  jail.  After 
visiting  these  prisoners  and  obtaining  for  them 
from  the  authorities  some  modifications  of  the 
rules  which  had  been  established  we  visited  the 
regular  officers'  camp  at  Burg. 

This  was  at  that  time  what  I  should  call  a 
bad  camp,  crowded  and  with  no  space  for  recre- 
ation. Later,  conditions  were  improved  and 
more  ground  allowed  to  the  prisoners  for  games, 
etc.  At  the  time  of  my  first  visit  I  found  that  the 
commander,  a  polite  but  peppery  officer,  was  in 
civil  life  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  at  Leip- 
zig, the  highest  court  in  the  Empire.  As  I  had 
been  a  judge  in  the  State  of  New  York,  we  fore- 
gathered and  adjourned  for  lunch  with  his  staff 
to  the  hotel  in  Burg. 

After  Churchill  left  the  British  Admiralty,  his 
successor  reversed  his  ruling  and  the  submarine 
prisoners  were  placed  in  the  ordinary  confine- 
ment of  prisoners  of  war.  When  the  Germans 
were  assured  of  this,  the  thirty-seven  officers 
who  had  been  in  reprisal  placed  in  solitary  con- 
finement were  sent  back  to  ordinary  prison 
camps.  In  fact  in  most  cases  I  managed  to  get 
the  Germans  to  send  them  to  what  were  called 
"good"  camps. 

Lieutenant  Goschen,  however,  became  quite  ill 
170 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

and  was  taken  to  the  hospital  in  Magdeburg.  At 
the  time  of  his  capture,  the  Germans  had  told 
me,  in  answer  to  my  inquiries,  that  he  was  suf- 
fering from  a  blow  on  the  head  with  the  butt  end 
of  a  rifle,  but  an  X-ray  examination  at  Magde- 
burg showed  that  fragments  of  a  bullet  had  pene- 
trated his  brain  and  that  he  was,  therefore, 
hardly  a  fit  subject  to  be  chosen  as  one  of  the 
reprisal  prisoners.  I  told  von  Jagow  that  I 
thought  it  in  the  first  place  a  violation  of  all  dip- 
lomatic courtesy  to  pick  out  the  son  of  the  for- 
mer Ambassador  to  Germany  as  a  subject  for 
reprisals  and  secondly  that,  in  picking  him,  they 
had  taken  a  wounded  man ;  that  the  fact  that  they 
did  not  know  that  he  had  fragments  of  a  bullet 
in  his  brain  made  the  situation  even  worse  be- 
cause that  ignorance  was  the  result  of  the  want 
of  a  proper  examination  in  the  German  hospitals; 
and  I  insisted  that,  because  of  this  manifestly 
unfair  treatment  which  had  undoubtedly  caused 
the  very  serious  condition  of  Lieutenant  Goschen, 
he  should  be  returned  to  England  in  the  ex- 
change of  those  who  were  badly  wounded.  I  am 
pleased  to  say  that  von  Jagow  saw  my  point  of 
view  and  finally  secured  permission  for  Lieu- 
tenant Goschen  to  leave  for  England. 

Dr.  Ohnesorg,  one  of  our  assistant  Naval 
Attaches,  went  with  him  to  England  on  account 
of  the  seriousness  of  his  condition,  and  I  was 

171 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

very  glad  to  hear  from  his  father  that  he  had 
arrived  safely  in  London. 

Undoubtedly  the  worst  camp  which  I  visited  in 
Germany  was  that  of  Wittenberg.  Wittenberg 
is  the  ancient  town  where  Luther  lived  and  nailed 
his  thesis  to  the  church  door.  The  camp  was  sit- 
uated just  outside  the  city  in  a  very  unattractive 
spot  next  to  the  railway.  An  outbreak  of  typhus 
fever  prevented  us  from  visiting  the  camp,  al- 
though Mr.  Jackson  conversed  with  some  of  the 
prisoners  from  outside  the  barrier  of  barbed 
wire.  When  the  typhus  was  finally  driven  out, 
Mr.  Lithgow  Osborne  visited  the  camp  and  his 
report  of  conditions  there  was  such  that  I  visited 
it  myself,  in  the  meantime  holding  up  his  report 
until  I  had  verified  it. 

With  Mr.  Charles  H.  Russell,  Jr.,  I  visited  the 
camp.  Typhus  fever  seems  to  be  continually 
present  in  Russia.  It  is  carried  by  the  body  louse 
and  it  is  transmitted  from  one  person  to  another. 
Russian  soldiers  seem  to  carry  this  disease  with 
them  without  apparently  suffering  much  from  it 
themselves.  The  Russian  soldiers  arriving  at 
Wittenberg  were  not  properly  disinfected  and,  in 
consequence,  typhus  fever  broke  out  in  camp. 
Several  British  medical  officers  were  there  with 
their  prisoners,  because,  by  the  provisions  of  the 
Hague  conventions,  captured  medical  officers  may 
be  kept  with  the  troops  of  their  nation,  if  pris- 

172 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

oners  have  need  of  their  services.  These  medical 
officers  protested  with  the  camp  commander 
against  the  herding  together  of  the  French  and 
British  prisoners  with  the  Russians,  who,  as  I 
have  said,  were  suffering  from  typhus  fever. 
But  the  camp  commander  said,  "You  will  have 
to  know  your  Allies;"  and  kept  all  of  his  prison- 
ers together,  and  thus  as  surely  condemned  to 
death  a  number  of  French  and  British  prisoners 
of  war  as  though  he  had  stood  them  against  the 
wall  and  ordered  them  shot  by  a  firing  squad. 
Conditions  in  the  camp  during  the  period  of  this 
epidemic  were  frightful.  The  camp  was  practi- 
cally deserted  by  the  Germans  and  I  understand 
that  the  German  doctor  did  not  make  as  many 
visits  to  the  camp  as  the  situation  required. 

At  the  time  I  visited  the  camp  the  typhus  epi- 
demic, of  course,  had  been  stamped  out.  The 
Germans  employed  a  large  number  of  police  dogs 
in  this  camp  and  these  dogs  not  only  were  used 
in  watching  the  outside  of  the  camp  in  order  to 
prevent  the  escape  of  prisoners  but  also  were 
used  within  the  camp.  Many  complaints  were 
made  to  me  by  prisoners  concerning  these  dogs, 
stating  that  men  had  been  bitten  by  them.  It 
seemed  undoubtedly  true  that  the  prisoners  there 
had  been  knocked  about  and  beaten  in  a  terrible 
manner  by  their  guards,  and  one  guard  went  so 
far  as  to  strike  one  of  the  British  medical 

173 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

officers.  There  were  about  thirty-seven  civil- 
ian prisoners  in  the  camp  who  had  been  there  all 
through  the  typhus  epidemic.  I  secured  the  re- 
moval of  these  civilian  prisoners  to  the  general 
civilian  camp  at  Ruhleben,  and  the  conditions  at 
Wittenberg  may  be  judged  by  the  fact  that  when 
it  was  announced  to  these  civilians  that  they  were 
to  be  taken  from  Wittenberg  to  another  camp 
one  of  them  was  so  excited  by  the  news  of  release 
that  he  fell  dead  upon  the  spot. 

In  talking  over  conditions  at  Wittenberg  with 
von  Jagow  I  said,  "Suppose  I  go  back  to  Witten- 
berg and  shoot  some  of  these  dogs,  what  can 
you  do  to  me?"  Soon  after  the  dogs  disappeared 
from  the  camp. 

The  food  in  all  these  camps  for  civilians  and 
for  private  soldiers  was  about  the  same.  It  con- 
sisted of  an  allowance  of  bread  of  the  same 
weight  as  that  given  the  civilian  population.  This 
was  given  out  in  the  morning  with  a  cup  of 
something  called  coffee,  but  which  in  reality  was 
an  extract  of  acorns  or  something  of  the  kind 
without  milk  or  sugar;  in  the  middle  of  the  day, 
a  bowl  of  thick  soup  in  which  the  quantity  of 
meat  was  gradually  diminished  as  war  went  on, 
as  well  as  the  amount  of  potatoes  for  which  at 
a  later  period  turnips  and  carrots  were,  to  a  large 
extent,  substituted;  and  in  the  evening  in  good 
camps  there  was  some  sort  of  thick  soup  given 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

out  or  an  apple,  or  an  almost  infinitesimal  piece 
of  cheese  or  sausage. 

In  the  war  department  at  Berlin  there  was  a 
Prisoners  of  War  Department  in  charge  of 
Colonel,  later  General,  Friedrich.  This  depart- 
ment, however,  did  not  seem  to  be  in  a  position 
to  issue  orders  to  the  corps  commanders  com- 
manding the  army  corps  districts  of  Germany, 
who  had  absolute  control  of  the  prison  camps 
within  their  districts.  Colonel  Friedrich,  how- 
ever, and  his  assistants  endeavoured  to  stand- 
ardise the  treatment  of  prisoners  of  war  in  the 
different  corps  districts,  and  were  able  to  exert 
a  certain  amount  of  pressure  on  the  corps  com- 
manders. They  determined  on  the  general  re- 
prisals to  be  taken  in  connection  with  prisoners 
of  war.  For  instance,  when  some  of  the  Ger- 
mans, who  had  been  taken  prisoners  by  the  Eng- 
lish and  who  were  in  England,  were  sent  by  the 
English  to  work  in  the  harbour  of  Havre,  the 
Germans  retaliated  by  sending  about  four  times 
the  number  of  English  prisoners  to  work  at  Li- 
bau  in  the  part  of  Russia  then  occupied  by  the 
Germans.  But  while  the  English  permitted  our 
Embassy  in  Paris  to  inspect  the  prisoners  of  war 
at  Havre,  the  Germans  for  months  refused  to 
allow  me  permission  to  send  any  one  to  inspect 
those  British  prisoners  at  Libau. 

Cases  came  to  my  attention  where  individual 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

corps  commanders  on  their  own  initiative  di- 
rected punitive  measures  against  the  prisoners  of 
war  in  their  districts,  on  account  of  the  rumours 
of  the  bad  treatment  of  German  citizens  in  Eng- 
land. Thus  the  commander  in  the  district  where 
the  camp  of  Doeberitz  was  situated  issued  an 
order  directing  reprisals  against  prisoners  under 
his  command  on  account  of  what  he  claimed  to 
be  the  bad  treatment  of  German  women  in  Eng- 
land. It  required  constant  vigilance  to  seek  out 
instances  of  this  kind  and  cause  them  to  be  reme- 
died. 

I  did  not  find  the  Germans  at  all  efficient  in 
the  handling  of  prisoners  of  war.  The  authority 
was  so  divided  that  it  was  hard  to  find  who  was 
responsible  for  any  given  bad  conditions.  For 
instance,  for  a  long  period  of  time  I  contended 
with  the  German  authorities  for  better  living 
conditions  at  the  civilian  camp  of  Ruhleben.  I 
was  promised  time  and  again  by  Colonel  Fried- 
rich,  by  the  camp  commander  and  by  the  Foreign 
Office  that  these  conditions  would  be  remedied. 
In  that  camp  men  of  education,  men  in  delicate 
health,  were  compelled  to  sleep  and  live  six  in  a 
box  stall  or  so  closely  that  the  beds  touched  each 
other  in  hay-lofts,  the  outside  walls  of  which  were 
only  four  feet  high. 

I  finally  almost  in  despair  wrote  identical  per- 
sonal letters,  after  having  exhausted  all  ordinary 

176 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

diplomatic  steps,  to  General  von  Kessel,  Com- 
mander of  the  Mark  of  Brandenburg,  to  the 
commander  of  the  corps  district  in  which  the 
Ruhleben  camp  was  situated,  and  to  the  Minister 
of  War:  and  the  only  result  was  that  each  of  the 
officers  addressed  claimed  that  he  had  been  per- 
sonally insulted  by  me  because  I  had  presumed  to 
call  his  attention  to  the  inhuman  conditions  un- 
der which  the  prisoners  were  compelled  to  live 
in  the  Ruhleben  camp. 

The  commander  of  this  civilian  camp  of 
Ruhleben  was  a  very  handsome  old  gentleman, 
named  Count  Schwerin.  His  second  in  command 
for  a  long  time  was  a  Baron  Taube.  Both  of 
these  officers  had  been  long  retired  from  the  army 
and  were  given  these  prison  commands  at  the 
commencement  of  the  war.  Both  of  them  were 
naturally  kind-hearted  but  curiously  sensitive  and 
not  always  of  even  temper.  On  the  whole  I  think 
that  they  sympathised  with  the  prisoners  and  did 
their  best  to  obtain  a  bettering  of  the  conditions 
of  their  confinement.  The  prisoners  organised 
themselves  in  their  various  barracks,  each  bar- 
rack having  a  captain  of  the  barrack,  the  cap- 
tains electing  one  of  their  number  as  a  camp  cap- 
tain or  Obniann. 

The  man  who  finally  appeared  as  head  man  of 
the  camp  was  an  ex-cinematograph  proprietor, 
named  Powell.  In  my  mind  he,  assisted  by  Beau- 

177 


mont  and  other  captains,  conducted  the  affairs  of 
the  camp  as  well  as  possible,  given  the  difficulty 
of  dealing  with  the  prisoners  on  one  hand  and 
the  prison  authorities  on  the  other  hand.  Natur- 
ally he  was  always  subject  to  opposition  from 
many  prisoners,  among  whom  those  of  aristo- 
cratic tendencies  objected  to  being  under  the  con- 
trol of  one  not  of  the  highest  caste  in  England; 
and  there  were  others  who  either  envied  him  his 
authority  or  desired  his  place.  The  camp  au- 
thorities allowed  Powell  to  visit  the  Embassy  at 
least  once  a  week  and  in  that  way  I  was  enabled 
to  keep  in  direct  touch  with  the  camp.  At  two 
periods  during  my  stay  in  Berlin  I  spent  enough 
days  at  the  camp  to  enable  every  prisoner  who 
had  a  complaint  of  any  kind  to  present  it  person- 
ally to  me. 

The  organisation  of  this  camp  was  quite  ex- 
traordinary. I  found  it  impossible  to  get  English 
prisoners  to  perform  the  ordinary  work  of  clean- 
ing up  the  camp,  and  so  forth,  always  expected 
of  prisoners  themselves;  and  so,  with  the  funds 
furnished  me  from  the  British  Government,  the 
camp  captain  was  compelled  to  pay  a  number  of 
the  poorer  prisoners  to  perform  this  work.  Sec- 
retaries Ruddock  and  Kirk  of  our  Embassy  un- 
dertook the  uninteresting  and  arduous  work  of 
superintending  these  payments  as  well  as  of  our 
other  financial  affairs.  This  work  was  most  try- 

178 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

ing  and  they  deserve  great  credit  for  their  self- 
denial.  By  arrangement  with  the  British  Govern- 
ment, I  was  also  enabled  to  pay  the  poorer  pris- 
oners an  allowance  of  five  marks  a  week,  thus 
permitting  them  to  buy  little  luxuries  and  neces- 
sities and  extra  food  at  the  camp  canteen  which 
was  early  established  in  the  camp.  I  also  fur- 
nished the  capital  to  the  camp  canteen,  enabling 
it  to  make  its  purchases  and  carry  on  its  busi- 
ness. In  this  establishment  everything  could  be 
purchased  which  was  purchasable  in  Germany, 
and  for  months  after  the  commencement  of  the 
war  articles  of  luxury  were  sold  at  a  profit  and 
articles  of  food  sold  at  a  loss  for  the  benefit  of 
those  who  required  an  addition  to  the  camp  diet. 
There  was  a  street  in  the  camp  of  little  barracks 
or  booths  which  the  prisoners  christened  Bond 
Street,  and  where  many  stores  were  in  operation 
such  as  a  tailor  shop,  shoe-maker's,  watch- 
maker's, etc.  Acting  with  Powell,  I  succeeded 
in  getting  the  German  authorities  to  turn  over 
the  kitchens  to  the  prisoners.  Four  of  the  pris- 
oners who  did  most  excellent  self-denying  w7ork 
in  these  kitchens  deserve  to  be  specially  men- 
tioned. They  were  Ernest  L.  Pyke,  Herbert 
Kastner,  Richard  H.  Carrad  and  George  Fer- 
gusson. 

The  men  in  this  camp  subsisted  to  a  great  ex- 
tent upon  the  packages  of  food  sent  to  them  from 

179 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

England.  Credit  must  be  given  to  the  German 
authorities  for  the  fairly  prompt  and  efficient  de- 
livery of  the  packages  of  food  sent  from  Eng- 
land, Denmark  and  Switzerland  to  prisoners  of 
war  in  all  camps. 

In  Ruhleben  the  educated  prisoners  volun- 
teered to  teach  the  ignorant:  two  hundred  and 
ninety-seven  different  educational  courses  were 
offered  to  those  who  desired  to  improve  their 
minds.  A  splendid  orchestra  was  organised,  a 
dramatic  society  which  gave  plays  in  French  and 
one  which  gave  plays  in  English  and  another  one 
which  gave  operas.  On  New  Year's  day,  1916, 
I  attended  at  Ruhleben  a  really  wonderful  per- 
formance of  the  pantomime  of  "Cinderella" ;  and, 
in  January,  1917,  a  performance  of  "The  Mi- 
kado" in  a  theatre  under  one  of  the  grand  stands. 
In  these  productions,  of  course,  the  female  parts 
were  taken  by  young  men  and  the  scenery,  cos- 
tumes and  accessories  were  all  made  by  the  pris- 
oners. There  was  a  camp  library  of  over  five 
thousand  volumes  sent  over  by  the  British  Gov- 
ernment and  a  reading  and  meeting  hall,  erected 
by  the  American  Y.  M.  C.  A.  There  was  even 
a  system  of  postal  service  with  special  stamps 
so  that  a  prisoner  in  one  barrack  could  write  to  a 
friend  in  another  and  have  a  letter  delivered  by 
the  camp  postal  authorities.  The  German  au- 
thorities had  not  hired  the  entire  race  track 

i  So 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

from  the  Race  Track  Association  so  that  I  made 
a  special  contract  with  the  race  track  owners 
and  hired  from  them  the  in-field  and  other  por- 
tions not  taken  over  by  German  authorities. 
Here  the  prisoners  had  tennis  courts  and  played 
hockey,  foot-ball  and  cricket  and  held  athletic 
games.  Expert  dentists  in  the  camp  took  care 
of  the  poorer  prisoners  as  did  an  oculist  hired 
by  me  with  British  funds,  and  glasses  were  given 
them  from  the  same  funds. 

The  prisoners  who  needed  a  little  better  nour- 
ishment than  that  afforded  by  the  camp  diet  and 
their  parcels  from  England,  could  obtain  cards 
giving  them  the  right  to  eat  in  the  Casino  or  camp 
official  restaurant  where  they  were  allowed  a  cer- 
tain indicated  amount  of  wine  or  beer  with  their 
meals,  and  finally  arrangements  were  arrived  at 
by  which  the  German  guards  left  the  camp,  sim- 
ply guarding  it  from  the  outside;  and  the 
policing  was  taken  over  by  the  camp  police 
department,  under  the  charge  of  the  prison 
camp  commander  and  committee.  The  worst 
features,  of  course,  were  the  food  and  housing. 
Human  nature  seems  always  to  be  the  same. 
Establishment  of  clubs  seems  inherent  to  the  An- 
glo-Saxon nature.  Ten  or  more  persons  would 
combine  together  and  erect  a  sort  of  wooden 
shed  against  the  brick  walls  of  a  barrack,  hire 
some  poorer  person  to  put  on  a  white  jacket  and 

181 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

be  addressed  as  "steward,"  put  in  the  shed  a  few 
deck  chairs  and  a  table  and  enjoy  the  sensation 
of  exclusiveness  and  club  life  thereby  given. 

Owing  to  the  failure  of  Germany  and  England 
to  come  to  an  agreement  for  a  long  time  as  to 
the  release  of  captured  crews  of  ships,  there  were 
in  Ruhleben  men  as  old  as  seventy-five  years  and 
boys  as  young  as  fifteen.  There  were  in  all  be- 
tween fifty  and  sixty  of  these  ships'  boys.  They 
lived  in  a  barrack  by  themselves  and  under  the 
supervision  of  a  ship's  officer  who  volunteered  to 
look  after  them  as  sort  of  a  monitor.  They  were 
taught  navigation  by  the  older  prisoners  and  I 
imagine  were  rather  benefited  by  their  stay  in  the 
camp.  I  finally  made  arrangements  by  which 
these  boys  were  released  from  England  and  Ger- 
many. With  the  exception  of  the  officers  and 
crews  of  the  ships,  prisoners  were  not  interned 
who  were  over  fifty-five. 

The  British  Government  was  generous  in  the 
allowance  of  money  for  Ruhleben  prisoners. 
The  amount  allowed  by  the  German  Govern- 
ment to  the  camp  commanders  for  feeding  the 
prisoners  was  extremely  small,  only  sixty  pfen- 
nigs a  day.  At  first  many  of  the  camp  com- 
manders made  contracts  with  caterers  for  the 
feeding  of  the  prisoners  and  as  the  caterers' 
profit  had  to  come  out  of  this  very  small  sum  the 
amount  of  food  which  the  remainder  purchased 

182 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

i 

for  the  prisoners  was  small  indeed.  As  the  war 
went  on  the  prisoners'  department  of  the  war 
office  tried  to  induce  the  camp  commanders  to 
abandon  the  contractors'  system  and  purchase 
supplies  themselves.  A  sort  of  convention  of 
camp  commanders  was  held  in  Berlin  which  I 
attended.  Lectures  were  there  given  on  food  and 
its  purchase,  and  methods  of  disinfecting  pris- 
oners, on  providing  against  typhus,  and  on  hous- 
ing and  other  subjects.  A  daily  lunch  was  served, 
supposed  to  be  composed  of  the  exact  rations 
given  at  the  prison  camps. 

The  schedules  of  food,  etc.,  made  out  by  the 
camp  commanders  and  furnished  to  foreign  cor- 
respondents were  often  not  followed  in  practice. 
I  know  on  one  occasion  when  I  was  at  the  camp 
at  Doeberitz,  the  camp  commander  gave  me  his 
schedule  of  food  for  the  week.  This  provided 
that  soup  with  pieces  of  meat  was  to  be  given  on 
the  day  of  my  visit,  but  on  visiting  the  camp 
kitchen  I  found  that  the  contractor  was  serving 
fish  instead  of  meat.  Some  of  the  camp  com- 
manders not  only  treated  their  prisoners  kindly 
but  introduced  manufactures  of  furniture,  etc., 
to  help  the  prisoners  to  pass  their  time.  The 
camps  of  Krossen  and  Gottingen  deserve  special 
mention.  At  Giessen,  the  camp  commander  had 
permitted  the  erection  of  a  barrack  in  which  cer- 
tain prisoners  who  were  electrical  experts  gave 

183 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

lessons  in  electrical  fitting,  etc.,  to  their  fellow 
prisoners.  There  was  also  a  studio  in  this  camp 
where  prisoners  with  artistic  talent  were  fur- 
nished with  paints  and  allowed  to  work.  As 
more  and  more  people  were  called  to  the  front  in 
Germany,  greater  use  was  made  of  the  prison- 
ers, and  in  the  summer  of  1916  practically  all  the 
prisoners  were  compelled  to  work  outside  of  the 
camps.  They  were  paid  a  small  extra  sum  for 
this,  a  few  cents  a  day,  and  as  a  rule  were  bene- 
fited by  the  change  of  scene  and  occupation.  The 
Russians  especially  became  very  useful  to  the 
Germans  as  agricultural  laborers. 

Professor  Alonzo  E.  Taylor  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  a  food  expert,  and  Dr.  D.  J. 
McCarthy,  also  of  Philadelphia,  joined  my  staff 
in  1916  and  proved  most  efficient  and  fearless  in- 
spectors of  prison  camps.  Dr.  Taylor  could  use 
the  terms  calories,  proteins,  etc.,  as  readily  as 
German  experts  and  at  a  greater  rate  of  speed. 
His  report  showing  that  the  official  diet  of  the 
prisoners  in  Ruhleben  was  a  starvation  diet  in- 
censed the  German  authorities  to  such  fury  that 
they  forbade  him  to  revisit  Ruhleben.  Professor 
Buckhaus,  the  German  expert,  agreed  with  him 
in  some  of  his  findings.  I  do  not  know  what  will 
happen  to  the  Professor,  who  seemed  willing  to 
do  his  best  for  the  prisoners.  He  wrote  a  booklet 
on  the  prison  camps  which  he  asked  permission 

184 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

to  dedicate  to  me,  but  the  War  Office,  which  pub- 
lished the  book,  refused  to  allow  him  to  make  this 
dedication.  It  was  a  real  pleasure  to  see  the  way 
in  which  Dr.  Taylor  carried  on  his  work  of  food 
inspection;  and  his  work,  as  well  as  that  of  the 
other  doctors  sent  from  America  to  join  my  staff, 
Drs.  Furbush,  McCarthy,  Roler,  Harns,  Web- 
ster and  Luginbuhl,  did  much  to  better  camp 
conditions. 

Dr.  Caldwell,  the  sanitary  expert,  known  for 
his  great  work  in  Serbia,  now  I  believe  head  of 
the  hospital  at  Pittsburgh,  reported  in  regard  to 
the  prison  diet:  "While  of  good  quality  and  per- 
haps sufficient  in  quantity  by  weight,  it  is  lacking 
in  the  essential  elements  which  contribute  to  the 
making  of  a  well-balanced  and  satisfactory  diet. 
It  is  lacking  particularly  in  fat  and  protein  con- 
tent which  is  especially  desirable  during  the 
colder  months  of  the  year.  *  *  *  There  is 
considerable  doubt  whether  this  diet  alone  with- 
out being  supplemented  by  the  articles  of  food 
received  by  the  prisoners  from  their  homes  would 
in  any  way  be  sufficient  to  maintain  the  prisoners 
in  health  and  strength/' 

Dr.  Caldwell  also  visited  Wittenberg  and 
found  the  commander  by  temperament,  and  so 
on,  unfitted  for  such  a  position. 

The  Germans,  as  Dr.  Taylor  has  pointed  out, 
tried  to  feed  prisoners  on  schedule  like  horses. 


There  is,  however,  a  nervous  discrimination  in 
eating  so  far  as  man  is  concerned;  and  a  diet, 
scientifically  fitted  to  keep  him  alive,  may  fail 
because  of  its  mere  monotony. 

Think  of  living  as  the  prisoners  of  war  in 
Germany  have  for  years,  without  ever  having 
anything  (except  black  bread)  which  cannot  be 
eaten  with  a  spoon. 

Officer  prisoners  were,  after  matters  had  set- 
tled down  and  after  several  bitter  contests  which 
I  had  with  the  German  authorities,  fairly  well 
treated.  There  was,  as  in  the  case  of  the  camps 
for  the  privates,  a  great  difference  between 
camps,  and  a  great  difference  between  camp  com- 
manders. Mr.  Jackson  did  most  of  the  visiting 
of  the  officers'  camps.  In  many  camps  the  offi- 
cers were  allowed  a  tennis  court  and  other 
amusements,  as  well  as  light  wine  or  beer  at 
meals,  but  the  length  of  the  war  had  a  bad  effect 
on  the  mental  condition  of  many  of  the  officers. 

A  great  step  forward  was  made  when  arrange- 
ments were  entered  into  between  Germany  and 
England  whereby  wounded  and  sick  officers  and 
men,  when  passed  by  the  Swiss  Commission 
which  visited  both  countries,  were  sent  to  Switz- 
erland; sent  still  as  prisoners  of  war,  subject  to 
return  to  Germany  or  England  respectively,  but 
the  opportunity  afforded  by  change  of  food  and 
scene,  as  well  as  reunion  of  families,  saved  many 

1 86 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

a  life.  By  arrangements  between  the  two  coun- 
tries, also,  the  severely  wounded  prisoners  were 
set  free.  I  believe  that  this  exchange  of  the  heav- 
ily wounded  between  the  Germans  and  the  Rus- 
sians was  the  factor  which  prevented  the  en- 
trance of  Sweden  into  the  war.  These  wounded 
men  traversed  the  whole  length  of  Sweden  in  the 
railway,  and  the  spectacle  afforded  to  the  Swe- 
dish population  of  these  poor  stumps  of  human- 
ity, victims  of  war,  has  quite  effectually  kept  the 
Swedish  population  from  an  attack  of  unneces- 
sary war  fever. 

Officers  and  men  who  tried  to  escape  were  not 
very  severely  punished  in  Germany  unless  they 
had  broken  or  stolen  something  in  their  attempt. 
Officers  were  usually  subjected  to  a  jail  confine- 
ment for  a  period  and  then  often  sent  to  a  sort 
of  punitive  camp.  Such  a  camp  was  situated  in 
one  of  the  Ring  forts  surrounding  the  city  of 
Kustrin  which  I  visited  in  September,  1916. 
There  the  officers  had  no  opportunity  for  exer- 
cise except  in  a  very  small  courtyard  or  on  the 
roof,  which  was  covered  with  grass,  of  the  build- 
ing in  which  they  were  confined.  I  arranged, 
however,  on  my  visit  for  the  construction  of  a 
tennis  court  outside.  The  British  officers  in  Ger- 
many practically  subsisted  on  their  parcels  re- 
ceived from  home,  and  during  the  end  of  my  stay 
a  much  better  tea  could  be  had  with  the  prison 

187 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

officers  than  with  the  camp  commander.  The 
prisoners  had  real  tea  and  marmalade  and  white 
bread  to  offer,  luxuries  which  had  long  since  dis- 
appeared from  all  German  tables.  On  the  whole, 
the  quarters  given  to  the  officers'  prisons  in  Ger- 
many were  not  satisfactory,  and  were  not  of  the 
kind  that  should  have  been  offered  to  officer  pris- 
oners of  war. 

At  the  time  I  left  Germany  there  were  nearly 
two  million  prisoners  of  war  in  the  Empire,  of 
whom  about  ten  thousand  were  Russian  officers, 
nine  thousand  French  officers  and  about  one 
thousand  British  officers. 

As  a  rule  our  inspectors  found  the  hospitals, 
where  the  prisoners  of  war  were,  in  as  good  con- 
dition as  could  be  expected. 

I  think  this  was  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  so 
many  doctors  in  Germany  are  Jews.  The  people 
who  are  of  the  Jewish  race  are  people  of  gentle 
instincts.  In  these  hospitals  a  better  diet  was 
given  to  the  prisoners.  There  were,  of  course,  in 
addition  to  the  regular  hospitals,  hospitals  where 
the  severely  wounded  prisoners  were  sent.  Al- 
most uniformly  these  hospitals  were  clean  and 
the  prisoners  were  well  taken  care  of. 

At  Ruhleben  there  was  a  hospital  which  in 
spite  of  many  representations  was  never  in 
proper  shape.  In  addition,  there  was  in  the  camp 
a  special  barrack  established  by  the  prisoners 

1 88 


IN  RUHLEBEN  CAMP.  A  SPECIMEN  BOTH 
OF  THE  PRISONER-ARTIST'S  WORK  AND  OF 
THE  TYPES  ABOUT  HIM 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

themselves  for  the  care  of  those  who  were  so  ill 
or  so  weak  as  to  require  special  attention  but  who 
were  not  ill  enough  to  be  sent  to  the  hospital. 
This  barrack  was  for  a  long  time  in  charge  of  a 
devoted  gentleman,  a  prisoner,  whose  name  I 
have  unfortunately  forgotten,  but  whose  self- 
sacrifice  deserves  special  mention. 

I  arranged  with  the  camp  authorities  and  the 
German  authorities  for  permission  to  enter  into 
a  contract  with  Dr.  Weiler.  Under  this  contract 
Dr.  Weiler,  who  had  a  sanatorium  in  the  West 
of  Berlin,  received  patients  from  Ruhleben. 
Those  who  were  able  paid  for  themselves,  the 
poorer  ones  being  paid  for  by  the  British  Govern- 
ment. This  sanatorium  occupied  several  villas. 
I  had  many  disputes  with  Dr.  Weiler,  but  finally 
managed  to  get  this  sanatorium  in  such  condition 
that  the  prisoners  who  resided  there  were  fairly 
well  taken  care  of. 

An  arangement  was  made  between  England 
and  Germany  by  which  civilians  unfit  for  military 
service  were  sent  to  their  respective  countries, 
and  just  before  I  left  I  effected  an  arrangement 
by  which  all  civilians  over  forty-five  years  old, 
with  the  exception  of  twenty  who  might  be  held 
by  each  country  for  military  reasons,  were  to  be 
released.  I  do  not  know  whether  this  arrange- 
ment was  actually  carried  out  in  full. 

With  the  lapse  of  time  the  mental  condition  of 
189 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

the  older  prisoners  in  Ruhleben  had  become  quite 
alarming.  Soldier  prisoners,  when  they  enter  the 
army,  are  always  in  good  physical  condition  and 
enter  with  the  expectation  of  either  being  killed 
or  wounded  or  taken  prisoner,  and  have  made 
their  arrangements  accordingly.  But  these  un- 
fortunate civilian  prisoners  were  often  men  in 
delicate  health,  and  all  were  in  a  constant  state  of 
great  mental  anxiety  as  to  the  fate  of  their 
business  and  their  enterprises  and  their  families. 
In  1916,  not  only  Mr.  Grafton  Minot,  who  for 
some  time  had  devoted  himself  exclusively  to  the 
Ruhleben  prisoners,  but  also  Mr.  Ellis  Dresel,  a 
distinguished  lawyer  of  Boston,  who  had  joined 
the  Embassy  as  a  volunteer,  took  up  the  work. 
Mr.  Dresel  visited  Ruhleben  almost  daily  and  by 
listening  to  the  stories  and  complaints  of  the  pris- 
oners materially  helped  their  mental  condition. 

The  Germans  collected  all  the  soldier  prisoners 
of  Irish  nationality  in  one  camp  at  Limburg  not 
far  from  Frankfurt  a.  M.  These  efforts  were 
made  to  induce  them  to  join  the  German  army. 
The  men  were  well  treated  and  were  often  vis- 
ited by  Sir  Roger  Casement  who,  working  with 
the  German  authorities,  tried  to  get  these  Irish- 
men to  desert  their  flag  and  join  the  Germans.  A 
few  weaklings  were  persuaded  by  Sir  Roger  who 
.finally  discontinued  his  visits,  after  obtaining 

190 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

about  thirty  recruits,  because  the  remaining 
Irishmen  chased  him  out  of  the  camp. 

I  received  information  of  the  shooting  of  one 
prisoner,  and  although  the  camp  authorities  had 
told  Dr.  McCarthy  that  the  investigation  had 
been  closed  and  the  guard  who  did  the  shooting 
exonerated,  nevertheless,  when  I  visited  the  camp 
in  order  to  investigate,  I  was  told  that  I  could 
not  do  so  because  the  matter  of  the  shooting  was 
still  under  investigation.  Nor  was  I  allowed  to 
speak  to  those  prisoners  who  had  been  witnesses 
at  the  time  of  the  shooting.  I  afterwards  learned 
that  another  Irishman  had  been  shot  by  a  guard 
on  the  day  before  my  visit,  and  the  same  obsta- 
cles to  my  investigation  were  drawn  about  this 
case. 

The  Irishmen  did.  not  bear  confinement  well, 
and  at  the  time  of  my  visit  among  them  many  of 
them  were  suffering  from  tuberculosis  in  the 
camp  hospital.  They  seemed  also  peculiarly  sub- 
ject to  mental  breakdowns.  Two  devoted  Cath- 
olic priests,  Father  Crotty  and  a  Brother  War- 
ren from  a  religious  house  in  Belgium,  were  do- 
ing wonderful  work  among  these  prisoners. 

The  sending  out  of  the  prisoners  of  war  to 
work  throughout  Germany  has  had  one  very  evil 
effect.  It  has  made  it  to  the  financial  advantage 
of  certain  farmers  and  manufacturers  to  have 
the  \var  continued.  The  Prussian  land  owners  or 

191 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

Junkers  obtain  four  or  five  times  as  much  for 
their  agricultural  products  as  they  did  before  the 
war  and  have  the  work  on  their  farms  performed 
by  prisoners  of  war  to  whom  they  are  required 
to  pay  only  six  cents  a  day.  When  the  Tageblatt 
called  attention  to  this  it  was  suppressed  for  sev- 
eral days. 

At  many  of  these  so-called  working  camps  our 
inspectors  were  refused  admission  on  the  ground 
that  they  might  learn  trade  or  war  secrets.  They 
succeeded,  however,  in  having  the  men  sent  out- 
side in  order  that  they  might  inspect  them  and 
hear  their  complaints.  There  were  in  Germany 
about  one  hundred  central  camps  and  perhaps  ten 
thousand  or  more  so-called  working  camps,  in 
summer  time,  throughout  the  country.  Some  of 
the  British  prisoners  were  put  to  work  on  the 
sewage  farm  of  Berlin  but  we  succeeded  in  get- 
ting them  sent  back  to  their  parent  camp. 

The  prisoners  of  war  were  often  accused  of 
various  breaches  of  discipline  and  crimes.  Mem- 
bers of  the  Embassy  would  attend  these  trials, 
and  we  endeavoured  to  see  that  the  prisoners 
were  properly  represented.  But  the  Germans 
often  refused  us  an  opportunity  to  see  the  prison- 
ers before  their  trial,  or  even  before  their  execu- 
tion. The  case  of  Captain  Fryatt  is  in  point. 

Captain  Fryatt  who  commanded  a  British  mer- 
chant ship  was  captured  and  taken  to  the  civilian 

192 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

camp  at  Ruhleben.  In  searching  him  the  Ger- 
mans claimed  that  he  were  a  watch  presented  to 
him  for  an  attempt  to  ram  a  German  submarine. 
They,  therefore,  took  Fryatt  from  the  Ruhleben 
camp  and  sent  him  to  Bruges  for  trial.  When  I 
heard  of  this  I  immediately  sent  two  formal  notes 
to  the  German  Foreign  Office  demanding  the 
right  to  see  Fryatt  and  hire  counsel  to  represent 
him,  inquiring  what  sort  of  counsel  would 
be  permitted  to  attend  the  trial  and  asking  for 
postponement  of  the  trial  until  these  matters 
could  be  arranged.  The  German  Foreign  Office 
had  informed  me  that  they  had  backed  up  these 
requests  and  I  believe  them,  but  the  answer  of 
the  German  admiralty  to  my  notes  was  to  cause 
the  trial  to  proceed  the  morning  after  the  day 
on  which  my  notes  were  delivered  and  to  shoot 
Fryatt  before  noon  of  the  same  day. 

As  to  the  evidence  regarding  the  watch,  the 
British  Foreign  Office  learned  that,  when  cap- 
tured, Captain  Fryatt  had  neither  a  watch  nor 
any  letter  to  indicate  that  he  had  tried  to  ram 
a  submarine! 

This  cruel  and  high-handed  outrage  caused 
great  indignation  in  England,  and  even  in  cer- 
tain circles  in  Germany;  and  the  manner  in 
which  my  request  was  treated  was  certainly  a 
direct  insult  to  the  country  which  I  represented. 
In  conversation  with  me,  Zimmermann  and  the 

193 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

Chancellor  and  von  Jagow  all  expressed  the 
greatest  regret  over  this  incident,  which  shows 
how  little  control  the  civilian  branch  of  the  gov- 
ernment has  over  the  military  in  time  of  war. 
Later  on,  when  similar  charges  were  made 
against  another  British  sea  captain,  the  Foreign 
Office,  I  think  through  the  influence  of  the  Em- 
peror, wras  able  to  prevent  a  recurrence  of  the 
Fryatt  outrage. 

As  I  have  said,  many  of  the  camp  command- 
ers in  Germany  were  men,  excellent  and  efficient 
and  kind  hearted,  who  did  what  they  could  for 
the  prisoners.  It  is  a  pity  that  these  men  should 
bear  the  odium  which  attaches  to  Germany  be- 
cause of  the  general  bad  treatment  of  prisoners 
of  war  in  the  first  days  of  the  war,  and  because 
certain  commanders  of  prison  camps  were  not 
fitted  for  their  positions. 

The  commander  at  the  camp  at  Wittenberg 
was  replaced,  but  the  Germans  have  never  ac- 
knowledged that  bad  conditions  had  existed  in 
that  camp.  Shortly  before  we  left  Germany  the 
war  department  seemed  to  gain  more  control  of 
the  prisoners  of  war  situation,  and  on  our  repre- 
sentations at  least  one  camp  commander  was  per- 
manently relieved.  If  examples  had  been  made 
early  in  the  war  of  the  camp  commanders  who 
were  not  fit  for  their  places  and  of  those  who  had 
in  any  way  mishandled  prisoners  of  war,  the  Ger- 

194 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

man  people  as  a  whole  would  not  have  had  to 
bear  the  burden  of  this  odium.  The  many  pris- 
oners will  return  to  their  homes  with  a  deep  and 
bitter  hatred  of  all  things  German. 

The  British  Government  took  a  great  interest 
in  the  British  prisoners  in  Germany.  Nothing 
was  omitted  and  every  suggestion  made  by  me 
was  immediately  acted  on ;  while  many  most  val- 
uable hints  were  given  me  from  London  as  to 
prisoners'  affairs.  Their  Majesties,  the  King 
and  Queen,  showed  a  deep  personal  concern  in 
the  welfare  of  the  unfortunate  British  in  Ger- 
man hands;  and  this  concern  never  flagged  dur- 
ing the  period  of  my  stay  in  Berlin.  Lord  Robert 
Cecil  and  Lord  Newton  were  continually  work- 
ing for  the  benefit  of  British  prisoners. 

At  a  time  when  the  British  prisoners  were 
without  proper  clothing,  the  British  Government 
sent  me  uniforms,  overcoats,,  etc.,  and  I  hired 
a  warehouse  in  Berlin  as  a  distributing  point; 
but,  after  some  months,  the  German  authorities 
refused  to  allow  me  to  continue  this  method  of 
distribution  on  the  ground  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
Germany  to  provide  the  prisoners  with  clothes. 
But  Germany  was  not  performing  this  duty  and 
the  British  prisoners  had  to  suffer  because  of  this 
German  official  woodenheadedness. 

In  the  spring  of  1916,  quite  characteristically, 
the  Germans  broke  their  "treaty"  concerning 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

visits  to  prisoners,  and  refused  to  permit  us  to 
speak  to  prisoners  out  of  hearing.  Von  Jagow 
told  me  that  this  was  because  of  the  trouble 
made  among  Russian  prisoners  by  the  visits  of 
Madam  Sazonoff,  but  this  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  arrangement  between  Great  Britain  and  Ger- 
many. 

I  think  that  the  Germans  suspected  that  I  had 
learned  from  fellow  prisoners  of  the  cruel  and 
unnecessary  shooting  of  two  Irish  prisoners  at 
Limburg.  It  was  not  from  prisoners,  however, 
that  I  obtained  this  information,  but  from  Ger- 
mans who  wrote  to  me. 

In  addition  to  the  English  and  Japanese,  I  had 
the  protection  of  the  Serbian  and  Roumanian 
subjects  and  the  protection  of  the  interests  of 
a  very  small  country,  the  Republic  of  San  Ma- 
rino. Soon  after  the  Serbians  and  Roumanians 
appeared  in  the  prison  camps  of  Germany  we 
made  reports  on  the  condition  and  treatment  of 
these  prisoners,  as  well  as  reports  concerning  the 
British. 

I  was  able  to  converse  with  some  Serbians,  in 
the  first  days  of  the  war,  in  their  native  tongue, 
which,  curiously  enough,  was  Spanish.  Imme- 
diately after  the  persecution  of  the  Jews  in  Spain 
by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  and  other  monarchs,  a 
number  of  Spanish  Jews  emigrated  to  Serbia 
where  they  have  remained  ever  since,  keeping 

196 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR 

their  old  customs  and  speaking  the  old  Spanish 
of  the  time  of  Cervantes. 

The  German  authorities,  in  the  most  petty 
manner,  often  concealed  from  me  the  presence 
of  British  prisoners,  especially  civilians,  in  prison 
camps.  For  a  long  time  I  was  not  informed  of 
the  presence  of  British  civilians  in  Sennelager 
and  it  was  only  by  paying  a  surprise  visit  by  mo- 
tor to  the  camp  at  Brandenburg  that  I  discovered 
a  few  British,  the  crew  of  a  trawler,  there.  It 
was  on  information  contained  in  an  anonymous 
letter,  evidently  from  the  wife  of  some  German 
officer,  that  I  visited  Brandenburg  where  the 
crew  of  this  trawler,  deprived  of  money,  were 
without  any  of  the  little  comforts  or  packages 
that  mitigate  life  in  a  German  prison  camp. 


197 


CHAPTER  XI 

FIRST  DAYS  OF  THE  WAR!   POLITICAL  AND  DIPLO- 
MATIC 

AT  the  commencement  of  the  war  for  some 
days  I  was  cut  off  from  communication 
with  the  United  States ;  but  we  soon  established  a 
chain  of  communication,  at  first  through  Italy 
and  later  by  way  of  Denmark.  At  all  times 
cables  from  Washington  to  Berlin,  or  vice  versa, 
took,  on  the  average,  two  days  in  transmission. 

After  the  fall  of  Liege,  von  Jagow  sent  for  me 
and  asked  me  if  I  would  transmit  through  the 
American  Legation  a  proposition  offering  Bel- 
gium peace  and  indemnity  if  no  further  opposi- 
tion were  made  to  the  passage  of  German  troops 
through  Belgium.  As  the  proposition  was  a 
proposition  for  peace,  I  took  the  responsibility  of 
forwarding  it  and  sent  the  note  of  the  German 
Government  to  our  Minister  at  the  Hague  for 
transmission  to  our  Minister  in  Belgium. 

Dr.  Van  Dyke,  our  Minister  at  the  Hague,  re- 
fused to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  transmis- 
sion of  this  proposition  and  turned  the  German 

198 


FIRST  DAYS  OF  THE  WAR 

note  over  to  the  Holland  Minister  for  Foreign 
Affairs,  and  through  this  channel  the  proposi- 
tion reached  the  Belgian  Government. 

The  State  Department  cabled  me  a  message 
from  the  President  to  the  Emperor  which  stated 
that  the  United  States  stood  ready  at  any  time 
to  mediate  between  the  warring  powers,  and  di- 
rected me  to  present  this  proposition  direct  to 
the  Emperor. 

I,  therefore,  asked  for  an  audience  with  the 
Emperor  and  received  word  from  the  chief  Court 
Marshal  that  the  Emperor  would  receive  me  at 
the  palace  in  Berlin  on  the  morning  of  August 
tenth.  I  drove  in  a  motor  into  the  courtyard  of 
the  palace  and  was  there  escorted  to  the  door 
which  opened  on  a  flight  of  steps  leading  to  a 
little  garden  about  fifty  yards  square,  directly 
on  the  embankment  of  the  River  Spree,  which 
flows  past  the  Royal  Palace.  As  I  went  down 
the  steps,  the  Empress  and  her  only  daughter, 
the  Duchess  of  Brunswick,  came  up.  Both 
stopped  and  shook  hands  writh  me,  speaking  a  few 
words.  I  found  the  Emperor  seated  at  a  green 
iron  table  under  a  large  canvas  garden  umbrella. 
Telegraph  forms  were  scattered  on  the  table  in 
front  of  him  and  basking  in  the  gravel  were  two 
small  dachshunds.  I  explained  to  the  Emperor 
the  object  of  my  visit  and  we  had  a  general  con- 
versation about  the  war  and  the  state  of  affairs. 

199 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

The  Emperor  took  some  of  the  large  telegraph 
blanks  and  wrote  out  in  pencil  his  reply  to  the 
President's  offer.  This  reply,  of  course,  I  cabled 
immediately  to  the  State  Department. 

For  the  President  of  the 

United  States  personally: 

IO/VIII   14. 

1.  H.  R.  H.  Prince  Henry  was  received  by  his 
Majesty  King  George  V  in  London,  who  empowered 
him  to  transmit  to  me  verbally,  that  England  would 
remain  neutral  if  war  broke  out  on  the  Continent  in- 
volving Germany  and   France,   Austria  and   Russia, 
This  message  was  telegraphed  to  me  by  my  brother 
from  London  after  his  conversation  with  H.  M.  the 
King,  and  repeated  verbally  on  the  twenty-ninth  of 
July. 

2.  My  Ambassador  in  London  transmitted  a  mes- 
sage from  Sir  E.  Grey  to  Berlin  saying  that  only  in 
case  France  was  likely  to  be  crushed  England  would 
interfere. 

3.  On  the  thirtieth  my  Ambassador  in  London  re- 
ported that  Sir  Edward  Grey  in  course  of  a  "private" 
conversation  told  him  that  if  the  conflict  remained 
localized  between  Russia — not   Serbia — and  Austria, 
England  would  not  move,  but  if  we  "mixed"  in  the 
fray  she  would  take  quick  decisions  and  grave  meas- 
ures; i.  e.,  if  I  left  my  ally  Austria  in  the  lurch  to 
fight  alone  England  would  not  touch  me. 

4.  This  communication  being  directly  counter  to 
the  King's  message  to  me,  I  telegraphed  to  H.  M.  on 
the  twenty-ninth  or  thirtieth,  thanking  him  for  kind 

200 


FIRST  DAYS  OF  THE  WAR 

messages  through  my  brother  and  begging  him  to  use 
all  his  power  to  keep  France  and  Russia — his  Allies — 
from  making  any  war-like  preparations  calculated  to 
disturb  my  work  of  mediation,  stating  that  I  was  in 
constant  communication  with  H.  M.  the  Czar.  In  the 
evening  the  King  kindly  answered  that  he  had  ordered 
his  Government  to  use  every  possible  influence  with 
his  Allies  to  refrain  from  taking  any  provocative  mili- 
tary measures.  At  the  same  time  H.  M.  asked  me  if 
I  would  transmit  to  Vienna  the  British  proposal  that 
Austria  was  to  take  Belgrade  and  a  few  other  Serbian 
towns  and  a  strip  of  country  as  a  "main-mise"  to 
make  sure  that  the  Serbian  promises  on  paper  should 
be  fulfilled  in  reality.  This  proposal  was  in  the  same 
moment  telegraphed  to  me  from  Vienna  for  London, 
quite  in  conjunction  with  the  British  proposal ;  besides, 
I  had  telegraphed  to  H.  M.  the  Czar  the  same  as  an 
idea  of  mine,  before  I  received  the  two  communica- 
tions from  Vienna  and  London,  as  both  were  of  the 
same  opinion. 

5.  I   immediately  transmitted  the  telegrams  vice 
versa  to  Vienna  and  London.     I  felt  that  I  was  able 
to  tide  the  question  over  and  was  happy  at  the  peace- 
ful outlook. 

6.  While  I  was  preparing  a  note  to  H.  M.  the 
Czar  the  next  morning,  to  inform  him  that  Vienna, 
London  and  Berlin  were  agreed  about  the  treatment  of 
affairs,  I  received  the  telephones  from  H.  E.  the  Chan- 
cellor that  in  the  night  before  the  Czar  had  given  the 
order  to  mobilize  the  whole  of  the   Russian  army, 
which  was,  of  course,  also  meant  against  Germany; 
whereas  up  till  then  the  southern  armies  had  been 
mobilized  against  Austria. 

201 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

7.  In  a  telegram  from  London  my  Ambassador  in- 
formed me  he  understood  the  British  Government 
would  guarantee  neutrality  of  France  and  wished  to 
know  whether  Germany  would  refrain  from  attack. 
I  telegraphed  to  H.  M.  the  King  personally  that 
mobilization  being  already  carried  out  could  not  be 
stopped,  but  if  H.  M.  could  guarantee  with  his  armed 
forces  the  neutrality  of  France  I  would  refrain  from 
attacking  her,  leave  her  alone  and  employ  my  troops 
elsewhere.  H.  M.  answered  that  he  thought  my  offer 
was  based  on  a  misunderstanding;  and,  as  far  as  I 
can  make  out,  Sir  E.  Grey  never  took  my  offer  into 
serious  consideration.  He  never  answered  it.  Instead, 
he  declared  England  had  to  defend  Belgian  neutrality, 
which  had  to  be  violated  by  Germany  on  strategical 
grounds,  news  having  been  received  that  France  was 
already  preparing  to  enter  Belgium,  and  the  King  of 
Belgians  having  refused  my  petition  for  a  free  pas- 
sage under  guarantee  of  his  country's  freedom.  I  am 
most  grateful  for  the  President's  message. 

WILLIAM,  H.  R. 

When  the  German  Emperor  in  my  presence 
indited  his  letter  to  President  Wilson  of  August 
tenth,  1914,  he  asked  that  I  cable  it  immediately  to 
the  State  Department  and  that  I  simultaneously 
give  it  to  the  press.  As  I  have  already  stated,  I 
cabled  the  document  immediately  to  the  State  De- 
partment at  Washington,  but  I  withheld  it  from 
publication. 

My  interview  with  the  Emperor  was  in  the 
morning.  That  afternoon  a  man  holding  a  high 

202 


FIRST  DAYS  OF  THE  WAR 

position  in  Germany  sent  for  me.  I  do  not  give 
his  name  because  I  do  not  wish  to  involve  him 
in  any  way  with  the  Emperor,  so  I  shall  not  even 
indicate  whether  he  is  a  royalty  or  an  official.  He 
said: 

"You  had  an  interview  today  with  the  Em- 
peror. What  happened  ?" 

I  told  of  the  message  given  me  for  the  Presi- 
dent which  was  intended  for  publication  by  the 
Emperor.  He  said: 

"I  think  you  ought  to  show  that  message  to 
me;  you  know  the  Emperor  is  a  constitutional 
Emperor  and  there  was  once  a  great  row  about 
such  a  message." 

I  showed  him  the  message,  and  when  he  had 
read  it  he  said :  "I  think  it  would  be  inadvisable 
for  us  to  have  this  message  published,  and  in  the 
interest  of  good  feeling  between  Germany  and 
America.  If  you  cable  it  ask  that  publication  be 
withheld." 

I  complied  with  his  request  and  it  is  charac- 
teristic of  the  President's  desire  to  preserve  good 
relations  that  publication  was  withheld.  Now, 
when  the  two  countries  are  at  war;  when  the 
whole  world,  and  especially  our  own  country, 
has  an  interest  in  knowing  how  this  great  calam- 
ity of  universal  war  came  to  the  earth,  the  time 
has  come  when  this  message  should  be  given  out 
and  I  have  published  it  by  permission. 

203 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

This  most  interesting  document  in  the  first 
place  clears  up  one  issue  never  really  obscure  in 
the  eyes  of  the  world — the  deliberate  violation  of 
the  neutrality  of  Belgium,  whose  territory  "had 
to  be  violated  by  Germany  on  strategical 
grounds."  The  very  weak  excuse  is  added  that 
"news  had  been  received  that  France  was  al- 
ready preparing  to  enter  Belgium," — not  even 
a  pretense  that  there  had  ever  been  any  actual 
violation  of  Belgium's  frontier  by  the  French 
prior  to  the  German  invasion  of  that  unfortu- 
nate country.  Of  course  the  second  excuse  that 
the  King  of  the  Belgians  had  refused  entrance  to 
the  Emperor's  troops  under  guarantee  of  his 
country's  freedom  is  even  weaker  than  the  first. 
It  would  indeed  inaugurate  a  new  era  in  the  inter- 
course of  nations  if  a  small  nation  could  only  pre- 
serve its  freedom  by  at  all  times,  on  request, 
granting  free  passage  to  the  troops  of  a  powerful 
neighbour  on  the  march  to  attack  an  adjoining 
country. 

And  aside  from  the  violation  of  Belgian  neu- 
trality, what  would  have  become  of  England  and 
of  the  world  if  the  Prussian  autocracy  had  been 
left  free  to  defeat — one  by  one — the  nations  of 
the  earth?  First,  the  defeat  of  Russia  and  Ser- 
bia by  Austria  and  Germany,  the  incorporation 
of  a  large  part  of  Russia  in  the  German  Empire, 
German  influence  predominant  in  Russia  and  all 

204 


ALLEGED    DUM-UUM    BULLETS,    WHICH    THE    GERMANS    DECLARED 
HAD  BEEN   FOUND   IN    LONGWY 


FIRST  DAYS  OF  THE  WAR 

the  vast  resources  of  that  great  Empire  at  the 
command  of  Germany.  All  the  fleets  in  the 
world  could  uselessly  blockade  the  German  coasts 
if  Germany  possessed  the  limitless  riches  of  the 
Empire  of  the  Romanoffs. 

The  German  army  drawing  for  reserves  on  the 
teeming  populations  of  Russia  and  Siberia  would 
never  know  defeat.  And  this  is  not  idle  conjec- 
ture, mere  dreaming  in  the  realm  of  possibili- 
ties, because  the  Russian  revolution  has  shown 
us  how  weak  and  tottering  in  reality  was  the 
dreaded  power  of  the  Czar. 

Russia,  beaten  and  half  digested,  France 
would  have  been  an  easy  prey,  and  England,  even 
if  then  joining  France  in  war,  would  have  a  far 
different  problem  to  face  if  the  U-boats  were 
now  sailing  from  Cherbourg  and  Calais  and 
Brest  and  Bordeaux  on  the  mission  of  piracy  and 
murder,  and  then  would  come  our  turn  and  that 
of  Latin  America.  The  first  attack  would  come 
not  on  us,  but  on  South  or  Central  America — at 
some  point  to  which  it  would  be  as  difficult  for  us 
to  send  troops  to  help  our  neighbor  as  it  would  be 
for  Germany  to  attack. 

Remember  that  in  Southern  Brazil  nearly 
four  hundred  thousand  Germans  are  sustained, 
as  I  found  out,  in  their  devotion  to  the  Father- 
land by  annual  grants  of  money  for  educational 
purposes  from  the  Imperial  treasury  in  Berlin. 

205 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

It  was  not  without  reason  that  at  this  inter- 
view, when  the  Kaiser  wrote  this  message  to  the 
President,  he  said  that  the  coming  in  of  England 
had  changed  the  whole  situation  and  would 
make  the  war  a  long  one.  The  Kaiser  talked 
rather  despondently  about  the  war.  I  tried  to 
cheer  him  up  by  saying  the  German  troops  would 
soon  enter  Paris,  but  he  answered,  "The  English 
change  the  whole  situation — an  obstinate  nation 
— they  will  keep  up  the  war.  It  cannot  end 
soon." 

It  was  the  entry  of  England  into  the  war,  in  de- 
fence of  the  rights  of  small  nations,  in  defence 
of  the  guaranteed  neutrality  of  Belgium,  which 
saved  the  world  from  the  harsh  dominion  of  the 
conquest-hungry  Prussians  and  therefore  saved 
as  well  the  two  Americas  and  their  protecting 
doctrine  of  President  Monroe. 

The  document,  which  is  dated  August  tenth, 
1914,  supersedes  the  statement  made  by  the  Ger- 
man Chancellor  von  Bethmann-Holhveg  in  his 
speech  before  the  Reichstag  on  August  fourth, 
1914,  in  which  he  gave  the  then  official  account  of 
the  entrance  into  the  war  of  the  Central  Empires. 
It  will  be  noted  that  von  Bethmann-Holhveg  in- 
sisted that  France  began  the  war  in  the  sentence 
reading:  "There  were  bomb-throwing  fliers, 
cavalry  patrols,  invading  companies  in  the  Reichs- 
land  (Alsace-Lorraine).  Thereby  France,  al- 

206 


FIRST  DAYS  OF  THE  WAR 

though  the  condition  of  war  had  not  yet  been 
declared,  had  attacked  our  territory."  But  the 
Emperor  makes  no  mention  of  this  fact,  of  su- 
preme importance  if  true,  in  his  writing  to  Presi- 
dent Wilson  six  days  later. 

Quite  curiously,  at  this  time  there  was  a  belief 
on  the  part  of  the  Germans  that  Japan  would  de- 
clare war  on  the  Allies  and  range  herself  on  the 
side  of  the  Central  Powers.  In  fact  on  one  night 
there  was  a  friendly  demonstration  in  front  of 
the  Japanese  Embassy,  but  these  hopes  were  soon 
dispelled  by  the  ultimatum  of  Japan  sent  on  the 
sixteenth  of  August,  and,  finally,  by  the  declar- 
ation of  war  on  August  twenty-third. 

During  the  first  days  of  the  war  the  warring 
powers  indulged  in  mutual  recriminations  as  to 
the  use  of  dumdum  bullets  and  I  was  given  sev- 
eral packages  of  cartridges  containing  bullets 
bored  out  at  the  top  which  the  Germans  said  had 
been  found  in  the  French  fortress  of  Longwy, 
with  a  request  that  I  send  an  account  of  them  to 
President  Wilson  and  ask  for  his  intervention  in 
the  matter.  Very  wisely  President  Wilson  re- 
fused to  do  anything  of  the  kind,  as  otherwise  he 
would  have  been  deluged  with  constant  com- 
plaints from  both  sides  as  to  the  violations  of 
the  rules  of  war. 

The  cartridges  given  to  me  were  in  packages 
marked  on  the  outside  "Cartouches  de  Stand'3  and 

207 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

from  this  I  took  it  that  possibly  these  cartridges 
had  been  used  on  some  shooting  range  near  the 
fort  and  the  bullets  bored  out  in  order  that  they 
might  not  go  too  far,  if  carelessly  fired  over  the 
targets. 

On  August  fifth,  with  our  Naval  Attache, 
Commander  Walter  Gherardi,  I  called  upon  von 
Tirpitz,  to  learn  from  him  which  ports  be  con- 
sidered safest  for  the  ships  to  be  sent  from  Amer- 
ica with  gold  for  stranded  Americans.  He  rec- 
ommended Rotterdam. 

I  also  had  a  conversation  on  this  day  with 
Geheimrat  Letze  of  the  Foreign  Office  with  ref- 
erence to  the  proposition  that  English  and  Ger- 
man ships  respectively  should  have  a  delay  of 
until  the  fourteenth  of  August  in  which  to  leave 
the  English  or  German  ports  in  which  they 
chanced  to  be. 

The  second  week  in  August,  my  wife's  sister 
and  her  husband,  Count  Sigray,  arrived  in  Ber- 
lin. Count  Sigray  is  a  reserve  officer  of  the  Hun- 
garian Hussars  and  was  in  Montana  when  the 
first  rumours  of  war  came.  He  and  his  wife  im- 
mediately started  for  New  York  and  sailed  on 
the  fourth  of  August.  They  landed  in  England, 
and  as  England  had  not  yet  declared  war  on  Aus- 
tria, they  were  able  to  proceed  on  their  journey. 
With  them  were  Count  George  Festetics  and 
Count  Cziraki,  the  former  from  the  Austrian 

208 


FIRST  DAYS  OF  THE  WAR 

Embassy  in  London  and  the  latter  from  that  in 
Washington.  They  were  all  naturally  very  much 
excited  about  war  and  the  events  of  their  trip. 

The  Hungarians  as  a  people  are  quite  like 
Americans.  They  have  agreeable  manners  and 
are  able  to  laugh  in  a  natural  way,  something 
which  seems  to  be  a  lost  art  in  Prussia.  Nearly 
all  the  members  of  Hungarian  noble  families 
speak  English  perfectly  and  model  their  clothes, 
sports  and  country  life,  as  far  as  possible,  after 
the  English. 

The  thirteenth  saw  the  departure  of  our  first 
special  train  containing  Americans  bound  for 
Holland.  I  saw  the  Americans  off  at  the  Char- 
lottenburg  station.  They  all  departed  in  great 
spirits  and  very  glad  of  an  opportunity  to  leave 
Germany. 

I  had  some  negotiations  about  the  purchase  by 
America  or  Americans  of  the  ships  of  the  North 
German  Lloyd,  but  nothing  came  of  these  nego- 
tiations. Trainloads  of  Americans  continued  to 
leave,  but  there  seemed  to  be  no  end  to  the  Ameri- 
cans coming  into  Berlin  from  all  directions. 

On  August  twenty-ninth,  Count  Szoegyeny, ' 
the  Austrian  Ambassador,  left  Berlin.  He  had 
been  Ambassador  there  for  twenty-two  years  and 
I  suppose  because  of  his  advancing  years  the  Aus- 
trian Government  thought  that  he  had  outlived 
his  usefulness.  Quite  a  crowd  of  Germans  and 

209 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

diplomats  were  at  the  station  to  witness  the 
rather  sad  farewell.  His  successor  was  Prince 
Hohenlohe,  married  to  a  daughter  of  Archduke 
Frederick.  She  expressly  waived  her  right  to 
precedence  as  a  royal  highness,  and  agreed  to 
take  only  the  precedence  given  to  her  as  the  wife 
of  the  Ambassador,  in  order  not  to  cause  feeling 
in  Berlin.  Prince  Hohenlohe,  a  rather  easy- 
going man,  who  had  been  most  popular  in  Rus- 
sia and  Austria,  immediately  made  a  favourable 
impression  in  Berlin  and  successfully  occupied 
the  difficult  position  of  mediator  between  the  gov- 
ernments of  Berlin  and  Vienna. 

On  September  fourth  the  Chancellor  gave  me 
a  statement  to  give  to  the  reporters  in  which  he 
attacked  England,  claiming  that  England  did  not 
desire  the  friendship  of  Germany  but  was  moved 
by  commercial  jealousy  and  a  desire  to  crush 
her;  that  the  efforts  made  for  peace  had  failed 
because  Russia,  under  all  circumstances,  was  re- 
solved upon  war ;  and  that  Germany  had  entered 
Belgium  in  order  to  forestall  the  planned  French 
advance.  He  also  claimed  that  England,  regard- 
less of  consequences  to  the  white  race,  had  ex- 
cited Japan  to  a  pillaging  expedition,  and  claimed 
that  Belgian  girls  and  women  had  gouged  out 
the  eyes  of  the  wrounded;  that  officers  had  been 
invited  to  dinner  and  shot  across  the  table;  and 
that  Belgian  women  had  cut  the  throats  of  sol- 

210 


FIRST  DAYS  OF  THE  WAR 

diers  quartered  in  their  houses  while  they  were 
asleep.  The  Chancellor  concluded  by  saying,  in 
this  statement,  that  every  one  knows  that  the 
German  people  is  not  capable  of  unnecessary  cru- 
elty or  of  any  brutality. 

We  were  fully  occupied  with  taking  care  of 
the  English  prisoners  and  interests,  the  Ameri- 
cans, and  negotiations  relating  to  commercial 
questions,  and  to  getting  goods  required  in  the 
United  States  out  of  Germany,  when,  on  October 
seventh,  a  most  unpleasant  incident,  and  one 
which  for  some  time  caused  the  members  of  our 
Embassy  to  feel  rather  bitterly  toward  the  Ger- 
man Foreign  Office,  took  place. 

A  great  number  of  British  civilians,  men  and 
women,  were  stranded  in  Berlin.  To  many  of 
these  were  paid  sums  of  money  in  the  form  of 
small  allowances  on  behalf  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment. In  order  to  facilitate  this  work,  we  placed 
the  clerks  employed  in  this  distribution  in  the 
building  formerly  occupied  by  the  British  Con- 
sul in  Berlin.  Of  course,  the  great  crowds  of 
Americans  resorting  to  our  Embassy,  when  com- 
bined with  the  crowds  of  British,  made  it  almost 
impossible  even  to  enter  the  Embassy,  and  es- 
tablishment of  this  outlying  relief  station  mate- 
rially helped  this  situation.  I  occupied  it,  and 
employed  English  men  and  English  women  in  this 
relief  work  by  the  express  permission  of  the  Im- 

211 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

perial  Foreign  Office,  which  I  thought  it  wise  to 
obtain  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Germans 
seemed  daily  to  become  more  irritable  and  sus- 
picious, especially  after  the  Battle  of  the  Marne. 

On  the  night  of  October  second,  our  Second 
Secretary,  Harvey,  went  to  this  relief  headquar- 
ters at  about  twelve  o'clock  at  night,  and  was  wit- 
ness to  a  raid  made  by  the  Berlin  police  on  this 
establishment  of  ours.  The  men  and  women 
working  were  arrested,  and  all  books  and  papers 
which  the  police  could  get  at  were  seized  by  them. 
The  next  morning  I  went  around  to  the  place  and 
on  talking  with  the  criminal  detectives  in  charge, 
was  told  by  them  that  they  had  made  the  raid  by 
the  orders  of  the  Foreign  Office.  When  I  spoke 
to  the  Foreign  Office  about  this,  they  denied  that 
they  had  given  directions  for  the  raid  and  made 
a  sort  of  half  apology.  The  raid  was  all  the 
more  unjustified  because  only  the  day  before  I 
had  had  a  conversation  with  the  Adjutant  of  the 
Berlin  Kommandantur  and  told  him  that,  al- 
though I  had  permission  from  the  Foreign  Office, 
[[  thought  it  would  be  better  to  dismiss  the  English 
employed  and  employ  only  Americans  or  Ger- 
mans; and  I  sent  round  to  my  friend,  Herr  von 
Gwinner,  head  of  the  Deutsche  Bank,  and  asked 
him  to  recommend  some  German  accountants  to 
me. 

The  Kommandantur  is  the  direct  office  of  mili- 

2T2 


FIRST  DAYS  OF  THE  WAR 

tary  control.  When  the  Adjutant  heard  of  the 
raid  he  was  almost  as  indignant  as  I  was,  and  on 
the  tenth  of  October  informed  me  that  he  had 
learned  that  the  raid  had  been  made  on  the  joint 
orders  of  the  Foreign  Office  and  von  Tirpitz's  de- 
partment. 

The  books  and  papers  of  an  Embassy,  includ- 
ing those  relating  to  the  affairs  of  foreign  na- 
tions temporarily  in  the  Embassy's  care,  are  uni- 
versally recognised  in  international  law  as  not 
subject  to  seizure,  nor  did  the  fact  that  I  was 
carrying  on  this  work  outside  the  actual  Em- 
bassy building  have  any  bearing  on  this  point  so 
long  as  the  building  was  directly  under  my  con- 
trol and,  especially,  as  the  only  work  carried  on 
was  work  properly  in  my  hands  in  my  official 
capacity.  The  Foreign  Office  saw  that  they  had 
made  a  mistake,  but  at  Zimmermann's  earnest  re- 
quest I  agreed,  as  it  were,  to  forget  the  incident. 
Later  on,  this  precedent  might  have  been  used  by 
our  government  had  they  desired  to  press  the 
matter  of  the  seizure  of  von  Igel's  papers.  Von 
Igel,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  carrying  on  busi- 
ness of  a  private  nature  in  a  private  office  hired 
by  him.  Nevertheless,  as  he  had  been  employed 
in  some  capacity  in  the  German  Embassy  at 
Washington,  Count  von  Bernstorff  claimed  im- 
munity from  seizure  for  the  papers  found  in  that 
office. 

213 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

On  August  sixteenth  the  Kaiser  left  Berlin  for 
the  front.  I  wrote  to  his  master  of  the  house- 
hold, saying  that  I  should  like  an  opportunity  to 
be  at  the  railway  station  to  say  good-bye  to  the 
Emperor,  but  was  put  off  on  various  excuses. 
Thereafter  the  Emperor  practically  abandoned 
Berlin  and  lived  either  in  Silesia,  at  Pless,  cr 
at  some  place  near  the  Western  front. 

At  first,  following  the  precedent  of  the  war  of 
1870,  the  more  important  members  of  the  gov- 
ernment followed  the  Kaiser  to  the  front,  even 
the  Chancellor  and  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs abandoning  their  offices  in  Berlin.  Not  long 
afterwards,  when  it  was  apparent  that  the  war 
must  be  carried  on  on  several  fronts  and  that  it 
was  not  going  to  be  the  matter  of  a  few  weeks 
which  the  Germans  had  first  supposed,  these  offi- 
cials returned  to  their  offices  in  Berlin.  In  the 
meantime,  however,  much  confusion  had  been 
caused  by  this  rather  ridiculous  effort  to  follow 
the  customs  of  the  war  of  1870. 

When  von  Jagow,  Minister  of  Eoreign  Affairs, 
was  absent  at  the  Great  General  Headquarters, 
the  diplomats  remaining  behind  conducted  their 
negotiations  with  Zimmermann,  who  in  turn  had 
to  transmit  everything  to  the  great  general  head- 
quarters. 

In  August,  there  were  apparently  rumours 
afloat  in  countries  outside  of  Germany  that  prom- 

214 


FIRST  DAYS  OF  THE  WAR 

inent  Socialists  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  had 
been  shot.  The  State  Department  cabled  me  to 
find  out  whether  there  was  any  truth  in  these 
rumours,  with  particular  reference  to  Liebknecht 
and  Rosa  Luxemburg. 

Liebknecht  is  a  lawyer  practicing  in  Berlin 
and  so  I  telephoned  him,  asking  him  to  come  and 
see  me.  He  did  so,  and  of  course,  by  his  pres- 
ence verified  the  fact  that  he  had  not  been  exe- 
cuted. He  told  me  that  the  rumours  as  to  the 
treatment  of  the  Socialists  were  entirely  un- 
founded and  said  that  he  had  no  objection  to  my 
cabling  a  statement  that  the  Socialists  were  op- 
posed to  Czarismus  and  that  he  personally  had 
confidence  in  the  German  army  and  the  cause  of 
the  German  people. 

Many  people  confuse  Liebknecht  with  his 
father,  now  dead.  Liebknecht,  the  son,  is  a  man 
of  perhaps  forty-three  years,  with  dark  bushy 
hair  and  moustache  and  wearing  eye-glasses,  a 
man  of  medium  height  and  not  at  all  of  strong 
build.  In  the  numerous  interruptions  made  by 
him  during  the  debates  in  the  Reichstag,  during 
the  first  year  of  the  war,  his  voice  sounded  high 
and  shrill.  Of  course,  any  one  who  defies  the 
heavy  hand  of  autocracy  must  suffer  from  ner- 
vousness. We  all  knew  that  sooner  or  later  au- 
tocracy would  "get"  Liebknecht,  and  its  opportu- 
nity came  when  he  appeared  in  citizen's  clothes 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

at  an  attempted  mass-meeting  at  the  Potsdamer- 
platz.  For  the  offence  of  appearing  out  of  uni- 
form after  being  called  and  mobilized,  and  for 
alleged  incitement  of  the  people,  he  was  con- 
demned for  a  long  term  of  imprisonment.  One 
can  but  admire  his  courage.  I  believe  that  he 
earns  his  living  by  the  practice  of  law  before  one 
of  the  minor  courts.  It  is  hard  to  say  just  what 
role  he  will  play  in  the  future.  It  is  probable 
that  when  the  Socialists  settle  down  after  the  war 
and  think  things  over,  they  will  consider  that 
the  leadership  of  Scheidemann  has  been  too  con- 
servative; that  he  submitted  too  readily  to  the 
powers  of  autocracy  and  too  easily  abandoned  the 
program  of  the  Socialists.  In  this  case,  Lieb- 
knecht  perhaps  will  be  made  leader  of  the  Social- 
ists, and  it  is  within  the  bounds  of  probability 
that  Scheidemann  and  certain  of  his  party  may 
become  Liberals  rather  than  Socialists. 


216 


CHAPTER  XII 

DIPLOMATIC   NEGOTIATIONS 

IN  the  autumn  of  1914,  the  rush  of  getting  the 
Americans  out  of  Germany  was  over.  The 
care  of  the  British  civilians  was  on  a  business 
basis  and  there  were  comparatively  few  camps 
of  prisoners  of  war.  Absolutely  tired  by  work- 
ing every  day  and  until  twelve  at  night,  I  went  to 
Munich  for  a  two  weeks'  rest. 

On  February  fourth,  1915,  Germany  an- 
nounced that  on  February  eighteenth  the  blockade 
of  England  through  submarines  would  com- 
mence. 

Some  very  peculiar  and  mysterious  negotia- 
tions thereafter  ensued.  About  February  eighth, 
an  American  who  was  very  intimate  with  the 
members  of  the  General  Staff  came  to  me  with 
a  statement  that  Germany  desired  peace  and  was 
ready  to  open  negotiations  to  that  end.  It  was, 
however,  to  be  made  a  condition  of  these  peace 
negotiations  that  this  particular  American  should 
go  to  Paris  and  to  Petrograd  and  inform  the  gov- 
ernments there  of  the  overwhelming  strength  of 

217 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

the  German  armies  and  of  their  positions,  which 
knowledge,  it  was  said,  he  had  obtained  by  per- 
sonally visiting  both  the  fronts.  It  was  further 
intimated  that  von  Tirpitz  himself  was  anxious 
that  peace  should  be  concluded,  possibly  because 
of  his  fear  that  the  proposed  blockade  would  not 
be  successful. 

Of  course,  I  informed  the  State  Department 
of  these  mysterious  manoeuvres. 

I  was  taken  by  back  stairways  to  a  mysterious 
meeting  with  von  Tirpitz  at  night  in  his  rooms 
in  the  Navy  Department.  When  I  was  alone 
with  him,  however,  he  had  nothing  definite 
to  say  or  to  offer;  if  there  was  any  oppor- 
tunity at  that  time  to  make  peace  nothing  came 
of  it.  It  looked  somewhat  to  me  as  if  the  whole 
idea  had  been  to  get  this  American  to  go  to  Paris 
and  Petrograd,  certify  from  his  personal  obser- 
vation to  the  strength  of  the  German  armies  and 
position,  and  thereby  to  assist  in  enticing  one  or 
both  of  these  countries  to  desert  the  allied  cause. 
All  of  this  took  place  about  ten  days  before  the 
eighteenth  of  February,  the  time  named  for  the 
announcement  of  the  blockade  of  England. 

Medals  were  struck  having  the  head  of  von 
Tirpitz  on  one  side  and  on  the  other  the  words 
"Gott  strafe  England,"  and  a  picture  of  a  sort  of 
Neptune  assisted  by  a  submarine  rising  from  the 
sea  to  blockade  the  distant  English  coast. 

218 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

The  Ambassador  is  supposed  to  have  the  right 
to  demand  an  audience  with  the  Kaiser  at  any 
time,  and  as  there  were  matters  connected  with 
the  treatment  of  prisoners  as  well  as  this  coming 
submarine  warfare  which  I  wished  to  take  up 
with  him,  I  had  on  various  occasions  asked  for 
an  audience  with  him;  on  each  occasion  my  re- 
quest had  been  refused  on  some  excuse  or  other, 
and  I  was  not  even  permitted  to  go  to  the  railway 
station  to  bid  him  good-bye  on  one  occasion  when 
he  left  for  the  front. 

When  our  Military  Attache,  Major  Lang- 
horne,  left  in  March,  1915,  he  had  a  farewell  au- 
dience with  the  Kaiser  and  I  then  asked  him  to 
say  to  the  Kaiser  that  I  had  not  seen  him  for  so 
long  a  time  that  I  had  forgotten  what  he  looked 
like.  Langhorne  reported  to  me  that  he  had 
given  his  message  to  the  Kaiser  and  that  the 
Kaiser  said,  "I  have  nothing  against  Mr.  Gerard 
personally,  but  I  will  not  see  the  Ambassador  of 
a  country  which  furnishes  arms  and  ammunition 
to  the  enemies  of  Germany." 

Before  the  departure  of  Langhorne,  I  had  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  Germany  to  agree  that  six 
American  army  officers  might  visit  Germany  as 
military  observers.  When  they  arrived,  I  pre- 
sented them  at  the  Foreign  Office,  etc.,  and  they 
were  taken  on  trips  to  the  East  and  West  fronts. 

They  were  not  allowed  to  see  much,  and  their 
219 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

request  to  be  attached  to  a  particular  unit  was  re- 
fused. Nearly  everywhere  they  were  subject  to 
insulting  remarks  or  treatment  because  of  the 
shipment  of  munitions  of  war  to  the  Allies  from 
America;  and  finally  after  they  had  been  sub- 
jected to  deliberate  insults  at  the  hands  of  several 
German  generals,  Mackensen  particularly  distin- 
guishing himself,  the  United  States  Government 
withdrew  them  from  Germany. 

Colonel  (now  General)  Kuhn,  however,  who 
was  of  these  observers,  was  appointed  Military 
Attache  in  place  of  Major  Langhorne.  Speaking 
German  fluently  and  acting  with  great  tact,  he 
managed  for  a  long  time  to  keep  sufficiently  in 
the  good  graces  of  the  Germans  to  be  allowed  to 
see  something  of  the  operations  of  the  various 
fronts.  There  came  a  period  in  1916  when  he 
was  no  longer  invited  to  go  on  the  various  excur- 
sions made  by  the  foreign  military  attaches  and 
finally  Major  Nicolai,  the  general  intelligence  offi- 
cer of  the  Great  General  Headquarters,  sent  for 
him  early  in  the  autumn  of  1916,  and  informed 
him  that  he  could  no  longer  go  to  any  of  the 
fronts.  Colonel  Kuhn  answered  that  he  was 
aware  of  this  already.  Major  Nicolai  said  that 
he  gave  him  this  information  by  direct  order  of 
General  Ludendorf,  that  General  Ludendorf  had 
stated  that  he  did  not  believe  America  could  do 
more  damage  to  Germany  than  she  had  done  if 

220 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

the  two  countries  were  actually  at  war,  and  that 
he  considered  that,  practically,  America  and  Ger- 
many were  engaged  in  hostilities.  On  this  being 
reported  to  Washington,  Colonel  Kuhn  was  quite 
naturally  recalled. 

I  cannot  praise  too  highly  the  patience  and  tact 
shown  by  Colonel  Kuhn  in  dealing  with  the  Ger- 
mans. Although  accused  in  the  German  news- 
papers of  being  a  spy,  and  otherwise  attacked, 
he  kept  his  temper  and  observed  all  that  he  could 
for  the  benefit  of  his  own  country.  As  he  had  had 
an  opportunity  to  observe  the  Russian- Japanese 
war,  his  experiences  at  that  time,  coupled  with 
his  experiences  in  Germany,  make  him,  perhaps, 
our  greatest  American  expert  on  modern  war. 

It  was  with  the  greatest  pleasure  that  I  heard 
from  Secretary  Baker  that  he  had  determined  to 
promote  Colonel  Kuhn  to  the  rank  of  General  and 
make  him  head  of  our  War  College,  where  his 
teachings  will  prove  of  the  greatest  value  to  the 
armies  of  the  United  States. 

Colonel  House  and  his  wife  arrived  to  pay  us 
a  visit  on  March  19,  1915,  and  remained  until 
the  twenty-eighth.  During  this  period  the  Col- 
onel met  all  the  principal  members  of  the  German 
Government  and  many  men  of  influence  and 
prominence  in  the  world  of  affairs,  such  as  Herr 
von  Gwinner,  head  of  the  Deutsche  Bank,  and 
Dr.  Walter  Rathenau,  who  succeeded  his  father 

221 


as  head  of  the  Allgemeine  Elektricitats  Gesell- 
schaft  and  hundreds  of  other  corporations.  The 
Colonel  dined  at  the  house  of  Dr.  Solf,  the  Colon- 
ial Minister,  and  lunched  with  von  Gwinner. 

In  April,  negotiations  were  continued  about 
the  sinking  of  the  William  P.  Fry,  an  American 
boat  loaded  with  food  and  destined  for  Ireland. 
The  American  Government  on  behalf  of  the 
owners  of  the  William  P.  Fry  claimed  damages 
for  the  boat.  Nothing  was  said  about  the  cargo, 
but  in  the  German  answer  it  was  stated  that  the 
cargo  of  the  William  P.  Fry  consisting  of  food- 
stuffs destined  for  an  armed  port  of  the  enemy 
and,  therefore,  presumed  to  be  destined  for  the 
armed  forces  of  the  enemy  was,  because  of  this, 
contraband.  I  spoke  to  von  Jagow  about  this 
and  told  him  that  I  thought  that  possibly  this 
would  seem  to  amount  to  a  German  justification 
of  the  British  blockade  of  Germany.  He  said 
that  this  note  had  been  drawn  by  Director  Kriege 
who  was  their  expert  on  international  law,  and 
that  he  would  not  interfere  with  Kriege's  work. 
Of  course,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  all  foodstuffs 
shipped  to  Germany  would  have  to  be  landed  at 
some  armed  port,  and,  therefore,  according  to 
the  contentions  of  Germany,  these  would  be  sup- 
posed to  be  destined  to  the  armed  forces  of  the 
enemy  and  become  contraband  of  war. 

At  international  law,  it  had  always  been  recog- 
222 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

nised  that  private  individuals  and  corporations 
have  the  right  to  sell  arms  and  ammunitions  of 
war  to  any  belligerent  and,  in  the  Hague  Conven- 
tion held  in  1907,  this  right  was  expressly  rati- 
fied and  confirmed.  This  same  Director  Kriege 
who  represented  Germany  at  this  Hague  Con- 
ference in  1907,  in  the  debates  on  this  point  said: 
"The  neutral  boats  which  engage  in  such  a  trade, 
commit  a  violation  of  the  duties  of  neutrality. 
However,  according  to  a  principle  generally  rec- 
ognised, the  State  of  which  the  boat  flies  the  flag 
is  not  responsible  for  this  violation.  The  neutral 
States  are  not  called  upon  to  forbid  their  subjects 
a  commerce  which,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
belligerents,  ought  to  be  considered  as  unlawful.'' 
(Conference  International  de  la  Paix,  La  Haye, 
15  Juin-i8  Octobre  1907.  Vol.  Ill,  p.  859.) 

During  our  trouble  with  General  Huerta,  arms 
and  ammunition  for  Huerta's  forces  from  Ger- 
many were  landed  from  German  ships  in  Mexico. 
During  the  Boer  war  the  Germans,  who  openly 
sympathised  with  the  Boers,  nevertheless  fur- 
nished to  England  great  quantities  of  arms  and 
munitions,  expressly  destined  to  be  used  against 
the  Boers;  and  this,  although  it  was  manifest 
that  there  was  no  possibility  whatever  that  the 
Boers  could  obtain  arms  and  munitions  from 
German  sources  during  the  war.  For  instance, 
the  firm  of  Eberhardt  in  Diisseldorf  furnished 

223 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

one  hundred  and  nine  cannon,  complete,  with 
wagons,  caissons  and  munitions,  etc.,  to  the  Eng- 
lish which  were  expressly  designed  for  use 
against  the  Boers. 

At  one  time  the  Imperial  Foreign  Office  sent 
me  a  formal  note  making  reference  to  a  para- 
graph in  former  Ambassador  Andrew  D.  White's 
autobiography  with  reference  to  the  alleged  stop- 
page in  a  German  port  of  a  boat  laden  with  arms 
and  ammunition,  for  use  against  the  Americans 
in  Cuba  during  the  Spanish  War.  Of  course, 
former  Ambassador  W7hite  wrote  without  having 
the  Embassy  records  at  hand  and  those  records 
show  that  the  position  he  took  at  the  time  of 
this  alleged  stoppage  was  eminently  correct. 

The  files  show  that  he  wrote  the  letter  to  the 
State  Department  in  w-hich  he  stated  that  knowl- 
edge came  to  him  of  the  proposed  sailing  of  this 
ship,  but  he  did  not  protest  because  he  had  been 
advised  by  a  Naval  Attache  that  the  United 
States  did  not  have  the  right  to  interfere.  The 
Department  of  State  wrote  to  him  commending 
his  action  in  not  filing  any  protest  and  otherwise 
interfering. 

It  seemed  as  if  the  German  Government  ex- 
pressly desired  to  stir  up  hatred  against  America 
on  this  issue  in  order  to  force  the  American  Gov- 
ernment through  fear  of  either  the  Gern.an  Gov- 
ernment, or  the  German-American  propagandists 

224 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

at  home,  to  put  an  immediate  embargo  on  the 
export  of  these  supplies. 

In  the  autumn  of  1914  Zimmermann  showed 
me  a  long  list  sent  him  by  Bernstorff  showing 
quantities  of  saddles,  automobiles,  motor  trucks, 
tires,  explosives,  foodstuffs  and  so  on,  exported 
from  America  to  the  Allies  and  intimated  that 
this  traffic  had  reached  such  proportions  that  it 
should  be  stopped. 

In  February,  1915,  in  the  official  Communique 
of  the  day  appeared  the  following  statement: 
''Heavy  artillery  fire  in  certain  sections  of  the 
West  front,  mostly  with  American  ammunition ;" 
and  in  April  in  the  official  Communique  some- 
thing to  this  effect:  "Captured  French  artillery 
officers  say  that  they  have  great  stores  of  Ameri- 
can ammunition."  I  obtained  through  the  State 
Department  in  Washington  a  statement  from  the 
French  Ambassador  certifying  that  up  to  that 
time,  the  end  of  April,  1915,  no  shells  whatever 
of  the  French  artillery  had  been  furnished  from 
America. 

Nothing,  however,  would  satisfy  the  Germans. 
They  seemed  determined  that  the  export  of  every 
article,  whether  of  food  or  munitions  which  might 
prove  of  use  to  the  Allies  in  the  war,  should 
be  stopped.  Newspapers  were  filled  with  bitter 
attacks  upon  America  and  upon  President  Wil- 

225 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

son,  and  with  caricatures  referring  to  the  sale 
of  munitions. 

It  never  seemed  to  occur  to  the  Germans  that 
we  could  not  violate  the  Hague  Convention  in 
order  to  change  the  rules  of  the  game  because 
one  party,  after  the  commencement  of  hostilities, 
found  that  the  rule  worked  to  his  disadvantage. 
Nor  did  the  Germans  consider  that  America  could 
not  vary  its  international  law  with  the  changing 
fortunes  of  war  and  make  one  ruling  when  the 
Germans  lost  control  of  the  sea  and  another  rul- 
ing if  they  regained  it. 

From  early  in  1915  until  I  left  Germany,  I 
do  not  think  I  ever  had  a  conversation  with  a 
German  without  his  alluding  to  this  question. 
Shortly  before  leaving  Germany,  in  January, 
1917,  and  after  I  had  learned  of  the  probability 
of  the  resumption  of  ruthless  submarine  war,  at 
an  evening  party  at  the  house  of  Dr.  Solf,  the 
Colonial  Minister,  a  large  German  who  turned 
out  to  be  one  of  the  Grand  Dukes  of  Mecklenburg- 
Schwerin,  planted  himself  some  distance  away 
from  me  and  addressed  me  in  German  saying, 
"You  are  the  American  Ambassador  and  I  want 
to  tell  you  that  the  conduct  of  America  in  furnish- 
ing arms  and  ammunition  to  the  enemies  of  Ger- 
many is  stamped  deep  on  the  German  heart,  that 
we  will  never  forget  it  and  will  some  day  have  our 
revenge."  He  spoke  in  a  voice  so  loud  and 

226 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

slapped  his  chest  so  hard  that  every  one  in  the 
room  stopped  their  conversation  in  order  to  hear. 
He  wore  on  his  breast  the  orders  of  the  Black 
Eagle,  the  Red  Eagle,  the  Elephant  and  the  Sera- 
phim, and  when  he  struck  all  this  menagerie  the 
rattle  alone  was  quite  loud.  I  reminded  him  po- 
litely of  the  Hague  Convention,  of  the  fact  that 
we  could  not  change  international  law  from  time 
to  time  with  the  change  in  the  situation  of  the 
war,  and  that  Germany  had  furnished  arms  to 
England  to  use  against  the  Boers.  But  he  simply 
answered,  "We  care  nothing  for  treaties,"  and 
my  answer,  "That  is  what  they  all  say,"  was  a 
retort  too  obvious  to  be  omitted. 

The  German  press  continually  published  ar- 
ticles to  the  effect  that  the  war  would  be  finished 
if  it  were  not  for  the  shipment  of  supplies  from 
America.  All  public  opinion  was  with  the  Ger- 
man Government  when  the  warning  was  issued 
on  February  fourth,  1915,  stating  that  the  block- 
ade of  England  would  commence  on  the  eigh- 
teenth and  warning  neutral  ships  to  keep  out  of 
the  war  zone.  From  then  on  we  had  constant 
cases  and  crises  with  reference  to  the  sinking 
of  American  boats  by  the  German  submarine. 
There  were  the  cases  of  the  Gulf  flight  and  the 
Cushing  and  the  Falaba,  an  English  boat  sunk 
without  warning  on  which  Americans  were  killed. 

On  May  sixth,  1915,  Director  Kriege  of  the 
227 


Foreign  Office  asked  Mr.  Jackson  to  call  and  see 
him,  and  told  him  that  he  would  like  to  have  the 
following  three  points  brought  to  the  attention 
of  the  American  public : 

"i.  As  the  result  of  the  English  effort  to 
stop  all  foreign  commerce  with  Germany, 
Germany  would  do  everything  in  her  power 
to  destroy  English  commerce  and  merchant 
shipping.  There  was,  however,  never  at 
any  time  an  intention  to  destroy  or  inter- 
fere with  neutral  commerce  or  to  attack 
neutral  shipping  unless  engaged  in  contra- 
band trade.  In  view  of  the  action  of  the 
British  Government  in  arming  merchant 
vessels  and  causing  them  to  disguise  their 
•national  character,  the  occasional  destruc- 
tion of  a  neutral  ship  was  unavoidable. 
Naval  officers  in  command  of  submarines 
had  been  instructed  originally,  and  new  and 
more  stringent  instructions  had  been  issued 
repeatedly,  to  use  the  utmost  care,  consist- 
ent with  their  own  safety,  to  avoid  attacks 
on  neutral  vessels. 

"2.  In  case  a  neutral  ship  should  be  de- 
stroyed by  a  submarine  the  German  Gov- 
ernment is  prepared  to  make  an  immediate 
and  formal  expression  of  its  regret  and  to 
228 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

pay  an  indemnity,  without  having  recourse 
to  a  prize  court. 

"3.  All  reports  with  regard  to  the  de- 
struction of  a  neutral  vessel  by  a  German 
submarine  are  investigated  at  once  by  both 
the  German  Foreign  Office  and  Admiralty, 
and  the  result  is  communicated  to  the  Gov- 
ernment concerned,  which  is  requested  in 
return  to  communicate  to  the  German  Gov- 
ernment the  result  of  its  own  independent 
investigation.  Where  there  is  any  material 
divergence  in  the  two  reports  as  to  the  pre- 
sumed cause  of  destruction  (torpedo  or 
mine),  the  question  is  to  be  submitted  to 
investigation  by  a  commission  composed  of 
representatives  of  the  two  nations  concerned,, 
with  a  neutral  arbiter  whose  decision  will 
be  final.  This  course  has  already  been 
adopted  in  two  cases,  in  which  a  Dutch  and 
a  Norwegian  vessel,  respectively,  were  con- 
cerned. The  German  Government  reserves 
its  right  to  refuse  this  international  arbi- 
tration in  exceptional  cases  where  for  mili- 
tary reasons  the  German  Admiralty  are 
opposed  to  its  taking  place." 

Director  Kriege  told  Mr.  Jackson  that  a  writ- 
ten communication  in  which  the  substance  of  the 

220 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

foregoing  would  be  contained,  would  soon  to  be 
made  to  the  Embassy. 

Mr.  Jackson  put  this  conversation  down  in  the 
form  above  given  and  showed  Director  Kriege 
a  copy  of  it.  Later  in  the  day  Geheimrat  Simon 
called  on  Mr.  Jackson  at  the  Embassy  and  said 
that  Dr.  Kriege  would  like  to  have  point  two  read 
as  follows: 

"In  case  through  any  unfortunate  mistake 
a  neutral  ship,"  and  continuing  to  the  end; 
and  that  Dr.  Kriege  would  like  to  change 
what  was  written  on  point  three  beginning 
with  "Where  there  is"  so  that  it  should 
read,  as  follows : — "Where  there  is  any  ma- 
terial divergence  in  the  two  reports  as  to  the 
presumed  cause  of  destruction  (torpedo  or 
mine),  the  German  Government  has  already 
in  several  instances  declared  its  readiness  to 
submit  the  question  to  the  decision  of  an  in- 
ternational commission  in  accordance  with 
the  Hague  Convention  for  the  friendly  set- 
tlement of  international  disputes." 

This  had  been  suggested  by  Director  Kriege 
in  case  it  should  be  decided  to  make  a  communi- 
cation to  the  American  Press.  Mr.  Jackson  told 
Geheimrat  Simon  that  he  would  report  the  sub- 
ject of  his  conversation  to  me,  but  that  it  would 

230 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

depend  upon  me  whether  any  communication 
should  be  made  to  the  American  Government  or 
to  the  press  upon  the  subject. 

Of  course,  the  news  of  the  torpedoing  of  the 
Lusitania  on  May  seventh  and  of  the  great  loss 
of  American  lives  brought  about  a  very  critical 
situation,  and  naturally  nothing  was  done  with 
Kriege's  propositions. 

It  is  unnecessary  here  for  me  to  go  into  the 
notes  which  were  exchanged  between  the  two 
governments  because  all  that  is  already  public 
property. 

Sometime  after  I  had  delivered  our  first  Lusi- 
tania Note  of  May  nth,  1915,  Zimmermann  was 
lunching  with  us.  A  good  looking  American 
woman,  married  to  a  German,  was  also  of  the 
party  and  after  lunch  although  I  was  talking  to 
some  one  else  I  overheard  part  of  her  conversa- 
tion with  Zimmermann.  When  Zimmermann  left 
I  asked  her  what  it  was  that  he  had  said  about 
America,  Germany,  Mr.  Bryan  and  the  Lusitania. 
She  then  told  me  that  she  had  said  to  Zimmer- 
mann that  it  was  a  great  pity  that  we  were  to 
leave  Berlin  as  it  looked  as  if  diplomatic  relations 
between  the  two  countries  would  be  broken,  and 
that  Zimmermann  told  her  not  to  worry  about 
that  because  they  had  just  received  word  from  the 
Austrian  Government  that  Dr.  Dumba,  the  Aus- 
trian Ambassador  in  Washington,  had  cabled 

231 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

that  the  Lusitania  Note  from  America  to  Ger- 
many was  only  sent  as  a  sop  to  public  opinion 
in  America  and  that  the  government  did  not 
really  mean  what  was  said  in  that  note.  I  then 
called  on  Zimmermann  at  the  Foreign  Office  and 
he  showed  me  Dumba's  telegram  which  was  sub- 
stantially as  stated  above.  Of  course,  I  imme- 
diately cabled  to  the  State  Department  and  also 
got  word  to  President  Wilson.  The  rest  of  the 
incident  is  public  property.  I,  of  course,  did  not 
know  what  actually  occurred  between  Mr.  Bryan 
and  Dr.  Dumba,  but  I  am  sure  that  Dr.  Dumba 
must  have  misunderstood  friendly  statements 
made  by  Mr.  Bryan. 

It  was  very  lucky  that  I  discovered  the  exist- 
ence of  this  Dumba  cablegram  in  this  manner 
which  savours  almost  of  diplomacy  as  repre- 
sented on  the  stage.  If  the  Germans  had  gone 
on  in  the  belief  that  the  Lusitania  Note  was  not 
really  meant,  war  would  have  inevitably  resulted 
at  that  time  between  Germany  and  America,  and 
it  shows  how  great  events  may  be  shaped  by 
heavy  luncheons  and  a  pretty  woman. 

Before  this  time  much  indignation  had  been 
caused  in  Germany  by  the  fact  that  the  Lusitania 
on  her  eastward  voyage  from  New  York  early  in 
February,  1915,  had  raised  the  American  flag 
when  nearing  British  waters. 

Shortly  after  this  incident  had  become  known, 
232 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

I  was  at  the  Wintergarten,  a  large  concert  hall 
in  Berlin,  with  Grant  Smith,  First  Secretary  of 
the  Embassy  at  Vienna  and  other  members  of  my 
staff.  We  naturally  spoke  English  among  our- 
selves, a  fact  which  aroused  the  ire  of  a  German 
who  had  been  drinking  heavily  and  who  was 
seated  in  the  next  box.  He  immediately  began  to 
call  out  that  some  one  was  speaking  English  and 
when  told  by  one  of  the  attendants  that  it  was  the 
American'  Ambassador,  he  immediately  cried  in  a 
loud  voice  that  Americans  were  even  worse  than 
English  and  that  the  Lusitania  had  been  flying 
the  American  flag  as  protection  in  British  waters. 

The  audience,  however,  took  sides  against  him 
and  told  him  to  shut  up  and  as  I  left  the  house  at 
the  close  of  the  performance,  some  Germans 
spoke  to  me  and  apologised  for  his  conduct.  The 
next  day  the  manager  of  the  Wintergarten  called 
on  me  also  to  express  his  regret  for  the  occur- 
rence. 

About  a  year  afterwards  I  was  at  the  races 
one  day  and  saw  this  man  and  asked  him  what 
he  meant  by  making  such  a  noise  at  the  Winter- 
garten. He  immediately  apologised  and  said 
that  he  had  been  drinking  and  hoped  that  I  would 
forget  the  incident.  This  was  the  only  incident 
of  the  kind  which  occurred  to  me  during  all  the 
time  that  I  \vas  in  Germany. 

Both  before  and  after  the  sinking  of  the  Lusi- 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

tania,  the  German  Foreign  Office  put  forward  all 
kinds  of  proposals  with  reference  to  American 
ships  in  the  war  zone.  On  one  afternoon,  Zim- 
mermann,  who  had  a  number  of  these  proposals 
drafted  in  German,  showed  them  to  me  and  I 
wrote  down  the  English  translation  for  him  to 
see  how  it  would  look  in  English.  These  pro- 
posals were  about  the  sailing  from  America  of 
what  might  be  called  certified  ships,  the  ships  to 
be  painted  and  striped  in  a  distinctive  way,  to 
come  from  certified  ports  at  certain  certified 
times,  America  to  agree  that  these  ships  should 
carry  no  contraband  whatever.  All  these  pro- 
posals were  sternly  rejected  by  the  President. 

On  February  sixteenth,  the  German  answer  to 
our  note  of  February  tenth  had  announced  that 
Germany  declined  all  responsibility  for  what 
might  happen  to  neutral  ships  and,  in  addition, 
announced  that  mines  would  be  allowed  in  waters 
surrounding  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  This 
note  also  contained  one  of  Zimmerniann's  pro- 
posed solutions,  namely,  that  American  warships 
should  convoy  American  merchantmen. 

The  German  note  of  the  sixteenth  also  spoke 
about  the  great  traffic  in  munitions  from  the 
United  States  to  the  Allies,  and  contained  a  sug- 
gestion that  the  United  States  should  induce  the 
Allies  to  adopt  the  Declaration  of  London  and 

234 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

omit  the  importation  not  only  of  food  but  also 
of  all  raw  materials  into  Germany. 

February  twentieth  was  the  date  of  the  con- 
ciliatory note  addressed  by  President  Wilson  to 
both  Great  Britain  and  Germany;  and  contained 
the  suggestion  that  submarines  should  not  be  em- 
ployed against  merchant  vessels  of  any  national- 
ity and  that  food  should  be  allowed  to  go  through 
for  the  civil  population  of  Germany  consigned  to 
the  agencies  named  by  the  United  States  in  Ger- 
many, which  were  to  see  that  the  food  was  re- 
ceived and  distributed  to  the  civil  population. 

In  the  meantime  the  mines  on  the  German  coast 
had  destroyed  two  American  ships,  both  loaded 
with  cotton  for  Germany;  one  called  the  Carib 
and  the  other  the  Evelyn. 

In  America,  Congress  refused  to  pass  a  law 
to  put  it  in  the  power  of  the  President  to  place 
an  embargo  on  the  export  of  munitions  of  war. 

In  April,  Count  BernstorfT  delivered  his  note 
concerning  the  alleged  want  of  neutrality  of  the 
United  States,  referring  to  the  numerous  new 
industries  in  war  materials  being  built  up  in  the 
United  States,  stating,  "In  reality  the  United 
States  is  supplying  only  Germany's  enemies,  a 
fact  which  is  not  in  any  way  modified  by  the  theo- 
retical willingness  to  furnish  Germany  as  well." 

To  this  note,  Secretary  Bryan  in  a  note  replied 
that  it  was  impossible,  in  view  of  the  indisputable 

235 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

doctrines  of  accepted  international  law,  to  make 
any  change  in  our  own  laws  of  neutrality  which 
meant  unequally  affecting,  during  the  progress 
of  the  war,  the  relations  of  the  United  States 
with  the  various  nations  at  war;  and  that  the 
placing  of  embargoes  on  the  trade  in  arms  which 
constituted  such  a  change  would  be  a  direct  vio- 
lation of  the  neutrality  of  the  United  States. 

But  all  these  negotiations,  reproaches  and  re- 
criminations were  put  an  end  to  by  the  torpedo- 
ing of  the  Lusitania,  with  the  killing  of  American 
women  and  civilians  who  were  passengers  on  that 
vessel. 

I  believed  myself  that  we  would  immediately 
break  diplomatic  relations,  and  prepared  to  leave 
Germany.  On  May  eleventh,  I  delivered  to  von 
Jagow  the  Lusitania  Note,  which  after  calling  at- 
tention to  the  cases  of  the  sinking  of  American 
boats,  ending  with  the  Lusitania,  contained  the 
statement,  "The  Imperial  German  Government 
will  not  expect  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  to  omit  any  word  or  any  act  necessary  to 
the  sacred  duty  of  maintaining  the  rights  of  the 
United  States  and  its  citizens  and  of  safeguard- 
ing their  free  exercises  and  enjoyments." 

During  this  period  I  had  constant  conversa- 
tions with  von  Jagow  and  Zimmermann,  and 
it  was  during  the  conversations  about  this 
submarine  warfare  that  Zimmermann  on  one 

236 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

occasion  said  to  me:  "The  United  States 
does  not  dare  to  do  anything  against  Ger- 
many because  we  have  five  hundred  thousand 
German  reservists  in  America  who  will  rise  in 
arms  against  your  government  if  your  govern- 
ment should  dare  to  take  any  action  against  Ger- 
many." As  he  said  this,  he  worked  himself 
up  to  a  passion  and  repeatedly  struck  the  table 
with  his  fist.  I  told  him  that  we  had  five  hundred 
and  one  thousand  lamp  posts  in  America,  and 
that  was  where  the  German  reservists  would  find 
themselves  if  they  tried  any  uprising;  and  I  also 
called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  no  German- 
Americans  making  use  of  the  American  pass- 
ports which  they  could  easily  obtain,  were  sailing 
for  Germany  by  way  of  Scandinavian  countries 
in  order  to  enlist  in  the  German  army.  I  told 
him  that  if  he  could  show  me  one  person  with  an 
American  passport  who  had  come  to  fight  in  the 
German  army  I  might  more  readily  believe  what 
he  said  about  the  Germans  in  America  rising  in 
revolution. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  during  the  whole  course 
of  the  wTar,  I  knew  of  only  one  man  with  Ameri- 
can citizenship  who  enlisted  in  the  German  army. 
This  was  an  American  student  then  in  Ger- 
many who  enlisted  in  a  German  regiment.  His 
father,  a  business  man  in  New  York,  cabled  me 
asking  me  to  have  his  son  released  from  the 

237 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

German  army;  so  I  procured  the  discharge  of  the 
young  man  who  immediately  wrote  to  me  and  in- 
formed me  that  he  was  over  twenty-one,  and  that 
he  could  not  see  what  business  his  father  had  to 
interfere  with  his  military  ambitions.  I  there- 
upon withdrew  my  request  with  reference  to  him, 
but  he  had  already  been  discharged  from  the 
army.  When  his  regiment  went  to  the  West 
front  he  stowed  away  on  the  cars  with  it,  was 
present  at  the  attack  on  Ypres,  and  was  shot 
through  the  body.  He  recovered  in  a  German 
hospital,  received  the  Iron  Cross,  was  discharged 
and  sailed  for  America.  What  has  since  become 
of  him  I  do  not  know. 

I  do  not  intend  to  go  in  great  detail  into  this 
exchange  of  notes  and  the  public  history  of  the 
submarine  controversy,  as  all  that  properly  be- 
longs to  the  history  of  the  war  rather  than  to 
an  account  of  my  personal  experiences;  and  be- 
sides, as  Victor  Hugo  said,  "History  is  not  writ- 
ten with  a  microscope."  All  will  remember  the 
answer  of  Germany  to  the  American  Lusitania 
Note,  which  answer,  delivered  on  May  twenty- 
ninth,  contained  the  charge  that  the  Lusitania 
was  armed  and  carried  munitions,  and  had  been 
used  in  the  transport  of  Canadian  troops.  In 
the  meantime,  however,  the  American  ship,  Ne- 
braskan,  had  been  torpedoed  off  the  coast  of  Ire- 
land on  the  twenty-sixth;  and,  on  May  twenty- 

238 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

eighth,  Germany  stated  that  the  American 
steamer,  Gulf  flight,  had  been  torpedoed  by  mis- 
take, and  apologised  for  this  act. 

Von  Jagow  gave  me,  about  the  same  time,  a 
Note  requesting  that  American  vessels  should  be 
more  plainly  marked  and  should  illuminate  their 
marking  at  night. 

The  second  American  Lusitania  Note  was  pub- 
lished on  June  eleventh,  1915;  and  its  delivery 
was  coincident  with  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Bryan 
as  Secretary  of  State.  In  this  last  Note  Presi- 
dent Wilson  (for,  of  course,  it  is  an  open  secret 
that  he  was  the  author  of  these  Notes)  made  the 
issue  perfectly  plain,  referring  to  the  torpedoing 
of  enemy  passenger  ships.  "Only  her  actual  re- 
sistance to  capture  or  refusal  to  stop  when  or- 
dered to  do  so  for  the  purpose  of  visit  could  have 
afforded  the  commander  of  the  submarine  any 
justification  for  so  much  as  putting  the  lives  of 
those  on  board  the  ship  in  jeopardy."  On  July 
eighth  the  German  answer  to  this  American  Lusi- 
tania Note  was  delivered,  and  again  stated  that 
"we  have  been  obliged  to  adopt  a  submarine  war 
to  meet  the  declared  intentions  of  our  enemies  and 
the  method  of  warfare  adopted  by  them  in  con- 
travention of  international  law".  Again  refer- 
ring to  the  alleged  fact  of  the  Lusitania's  carry- 
ing munitions  they  said:  "If  the  Lusitania  had 
been  spared,  thousands  of  cases  of  munitions 

239 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

would  have  been  sent  to  Germany's  enemies  and 
thereby  thousands  of  German  mothers  and  chil- 
dren robbed  of  breadwinners."  The  note  then 
contained  some  of  Zimmermann's  favourite  pro- 
posals, to  the  effect  that  German  submarine  com- 
manders would  be  instructed  to  permit  the  pas- 
sage of  American  steamers  marked  in  a  special 
way  and  of  whose  sailing  they  had  been  notified 
in  advance,  provided  that  the  American  Govern- 
ment guaranteed  that  these  vessels  did  not  carry 
contraband  of  war.  It  was  also  suggested  that 
a  number  of  neutral  vessels  should  be  added  to 
those  sailing  under  the  American  flag,  to  give 
greater  opportunity  for  those  Americans  who 
were  compelled  to  travel  abroad,  and  the  Note's 
most  important  part  continued:  "In  particular 
the  Imperial  Government  is  unable  to  admit  that 
the  American  citizens  can  protect  an  enemy  ship 
by  mere  fact  of  their  presence  on  board." 

July  twenty-first,  the  American  Government 
rejected  the  proposals  of  Germany  saying,  "The 
lives  of  noncombatants  may  in  no  case  be  put 
in  jeopardy  unless  the  vessel  resists  or  seeks  to 
escape  after  being  summoned  to  submit  to  ex- 
amination," and  disposed  of  the  claim  that  the 
acts  of  England  gave  Germany  the  right  to  re- 
taliate, even  though  American  citizens  should  be 
deprived  of  their  lives  in  the  course  of  retaliation 
by  stating:  "For  a  belligerent  act  of  retaliation 

240 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

is  per  se  an  act  beyond  the  law,  and  the  defense, 
of  an  act  as  retaliatory,  is  an  admission  that  it  is 
illegal."  Continuing  it  said:  "If  a  belligerent 
cannot  retaliate  against  an  enemy  without  injur- 
ing the  lives  of  neutrals,  as  well  as  their  property, 
humanity,  as  well  as  justice  and  a  due  regard  for 
the  dignity  of  neutral  powers,  should  dictate  that 
the  practice  be  discontinued." 

It  was  also  said:  "The  United  States  cannot 
believe  that  the  Imperial  Government  will  longer 
refrain  from  disavowing  the  wanton  act  of  its 
naval  commander  in  sinking  the  Lusitania  or 
from  offering  reparation  for  the  American  lives 
lost,  so  far  as  reparation  can  be  made  for  the 
needless  destruction  of  human  life  by  an  illegal 
act."  And  the  meat  of  the  Note  was  contained 
in  the  following  sentence:  "Friendship  itself 
prompts  it  (the  United  States)  to  say  to  the  Im- 
perial Government  that  repetition  by  the  com- 
manders of  German  naval  vessels  of  acts  in  con- 
travention of  those  rights  must  be  regarded  by 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  when  they 
affect  American  citizens,  as  being  deliberately 
unfriendly." 

There  the  matter  has  remained  so  far  as  the 
Lusitania  was  concerned  until  now.  In  the  mean- 
time, the  attack  of  the  American  ship,  Xebraskan, 
was  disavowed;  the  German  Note  stating  that 
"the  torpedo  was  not  meant  for  the  American 

241 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

flag  and  is  to  be  considered  an  unfortunate  acci- 
dent." 

The  diplomatic  situation  with  regard  to  the 
use  of  the  submarine  and  the  attack  on  many 
merchant  ships  without  notice  and  without  put- 
ting the  passengers  in  safety  was  still  unsettled 
when  on  August  nineteenth,  1915,  the  British 
ship  Arabic,  was  torpedoed,  without  warning, 
not  far  from  the  place  where  the  Lusitania  had 
gone  down.  Two  Americans  were  among  the 
passengers  killed. 

The  German  Government,  after  the  usual 
quibbling,  at  length,  in  its  Note  of  September 
seventh,  claimed  that  the  Captain  of  the  German 
submarine,  while  engaged  in  preparing  to  sink 
the  Dunsley,  became  convinced  that  the  approach- 
ing Arabic  was  trying  to  ram  him  and,  therefore, 
fired  his  torpedo.  The  Imperial  Government  re- 
fused to  admit  any  liability  but  offered  to  arbi- 
trate. 

There  followed  almost  immediately  the  case 
of  the  Ancona,  sunk  by  a  submarine  flying  the 
Austrian  flag.  This  case  was  naturally  out  of 
my  jurisdiction,  but  formed  a  link  in  the  chain, 
and  then  came  the  sinking  of  the  Persia  in  the 
Mediterranean.  On  this  boat  our  consul  to  Aden 
lost  his  life. 

In  the  Note  of  Count  Bernstorff  to  Secretary 
Lansing,  dated  September  first,  1915,  Count 

242 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

Bernstorff  said  that  liners  would  not  be  sunk  by 
German  submarines  without  warning,  and  with- 
out putting  the  passengers  in  safety,  provided 
that  the  liners  did  not  try  to  escape  or  offer  re- 
sistance; and  it  was  further  stated  that  this  pol- 
icy was  in  effect  before  the  sinking  of  the  Arabic. 

There  were  long  negotiations  during  this  pe- 
riod concerning  the  Arabic.  At  one  time  it  looked 
as  if  diplomatic  relations  would  be  broken;  but 
finally  the  Imperial  Government  consented  to 
acknowledge  that  the  submarine  commander  had 
been  wrong  in  assuming  that  the  Arabic  intended 
to  ram  his  boat,  offered  to  pay  an  indemnity  and 
disavowed  the  act  of  the  commander.  It  was 
stated  that  orders  so  precise  had  been  given  to 
the  submarine  commanders  that  a  "recurrence  of 
incidents  similar  to  the  Arabic  is  considered  out 
of  the  question." 

In  the  same  way  the  Austrian  Government 
gave  way  to  the  demands  of  America  in  the 
Ancona  case  at  the  end  of  December,  1915.  Am- 
bassador Penfield,  in  Austria,  won  great  praise 
by  his  admirable  handling  of  this  case. 

The  negotiations  as  to  the  still  pending  Lusi- 
tania  case  were  carried  on  in  Washington  by 
Count  Bernstorff  and  Secretary  Lansing,  and 
finally  Germany  offered  to  pay  an  indemnity  for 
the  death  of  the  Americans  on  the  Lusitania 
whose  deaths  Germany  "greatly  regretted,"  but 

243 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

refused  to  disavow  the  act  of  the  submarine  com- 
mander in  sinking  the  Lusitania  or  to  admit  that 
such  act  was  illegal. 

About  this  time  our  State  Department  sent 
out  a  Note  proposing  in  effect  that  submarines 
should  conform  to  "cruiser"  warfare,  only  sink- 
ing a  vessel  which  defended  itself  or  tried  to  es- 
cape, and  that  before  sinking  a  vessel  its  pas- 
sengers and  crew  should  be  placed  in  safety;  and 
that,  on  the  other  hand,  merchant  vessels  of  bel- 
ligerent nationality  should  be  prohibited  from 
carrying  any  armaments  whatever.  This  sug- 
gestion was  not  followed  up. 

Zimmermann  (not  the  one  in  the  Foreign  Of- 
fice) wrote  an  article  in  the  Lokal  Anzeiger  of 
which  he  is  an  editor,  saying  that  the  United 
States  had  something  on  their  side  in  the  question 
of  the  export  of  munitions.  I  heard  that  von 
Kessel,  commander  of  the  Mark  of  Brandenburg 
said  that  he,  Zimmermann,  ought  to  be  shot  as 
a  traitor.  Zimmermann  hearing  of  this  made 
von  Kessel  apologise,  but  was  shortly  afterwards 
mobilised. 

Colonel  House  had  arrived  in  Germany  at  the 
end  of  January,  1916,  and  remained  only  three 
days.  He  wras  quite  worried  by  the  situation  and 
by  an  interview  he  had  had  with  Zimmermann  in 
which  Zimmermann  expressed  the  readiness  of 
Germany  to  go  to  war  with  the  United  States. 

244 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

In  February,  1916,  the  Junkers  in  the  Prussian 
Lower  House  started  a  fight  against  the  Chancel- 
lor and  discussed  submarine  war,  a  matter  out  of 
their  province.  The  Chancellor  hit  back  at  them 
hard  and  had  the  best  of  the  exchange.  At  this 
period  it  was  reported  that  the  Emperor  went  to 
Wilhelmshafen  to  warn  the  submarine  command- 
ers to  be  careful. 

About  March  first  it  was  reported  that  a  grand 
council  of  war  was  held  at  Charleville  and  that 
in  spite  of  the  support  of  von  Tirpitz  by  Falken- 
hayn,  the  Chief  of  Staff,  the  Chancellor  was  sup- 
ported by  the  Emperor,  and  once  more  beat  the 
propositions  to  recommence  ruthless  submarine 
war. 

In  March  too,  the  "illness"  of  von  Tirpitz  was 
announced,  followed  shortly  by  his  resignation. 
On  March  nineteenth,  his  birthday,  a  demon- 
stration was  looked  for  and  I  saw  many  police 
near  his  dwelling,  but  nothing  unusual  occurred. 

I  contemplated  a  trip  to  America,  but  both 
the  Chancellor  and  von  Jagow  begged  me  not  to 

go- 

From  the  time  of  the  Lusitania  sinking  to  that 

of  the  Sussex  all  Germany  was  divided  into  two 
camps.  The  party  of  the  Chancellor  tried  to  keep 
peace  with  America  and  did  not  \vant  to  have 
Germany  branded  as  an  outlaw  among  nations. 
Von  Tirpitz  and  his  party  of  naval  and  military 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

officers  called  for  ruthless  submarine  war,  and 
the  Conservatives,  angry  with  Bethmann-Holl- 
weg  because  of  his  proposed  concession  as  to  the 
extension  of  the  suffrage,  joined  the  opposition. 
The  reception  of  our  last  Lusitania  Note  in  July, 
I915,  was  hostile  and  I  was  accused  of  being 
against  Germany,  although,  of  course,  I  had  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  preparation  of  this  Note. 

In  August,  1915,  the  deputies  representing  the 
great  industrials  of  Germany  joined  in  the  attack 
on  the  Chancellor.  These  men  wished  to  keep 
Northern  France  and  Belgium,  because  they 
hoped  to  get  possession  of  the  coal  and  iron  de- 
posits there  and  so  obtain  a  monopoly  of  the 
iron  and  steel  trade  of  the  continent.  Accelera- 
tors of  public  opinion,  undoubtedly  hired  by  the 
Krupp  firm,  were  hard  at  work.  These  Annexa- 
tionists  were  opposed  by  the  more  reasonable  men 
who  signed  a  petition  against  the  annexation  of 
Belgium.  Among  the  signers  of  this  reasonable 
men's  petition  were  Prince  Hatzfeld  (Duke  of 
Trachenberg)  head  of  the  Red  Cross,  Dernburg, 
Prince  Henkel  Donnersmarck,  Professor  Del- 
briick,  von  Harnack  and  many  others. 

The  rage  of  the  Conservatives  at  the  Arabic 
settlement  knew  no  bounds,  and  after  a  bitter  ar- 
ticle had  appeared  in  the  Tageszeitung  about  the 
Arabic  affair,  that  newspaper  was  suppressed  for 
some  days, — a  rather  unexpected  showing  of 

246 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

backbone  on  the  part  of  the  Chancellor.  Revent- 
low  who  wrote  for  this  newspaper  is  one  of  the 
ablest  editorial  writers  in  Germany.  An  ex-naval 
officer,  he  is  bitter  in  his  hatred  of  America.  It 
was  said  that  he  once  lived  in  America  and  lost 
a  small  fortune  in  a  Florida  orange  grove,  but 
I  never  succeeded  in  having  this  verified. 

In  November,  1915,  after  the  Arabic  settle- 
ment there  followed  a  moment  for  us  of  compara- 
tive calm.  Mrs.  Gerard  was  given  the  Red  Cross 
Orders  of  the  first  and  third  classes,  and  Jackson 
and  Rives  of  the  Embassy  Staff  the  second  and 
third  class.  The  third  class  is  always  given  be- 
cause one  cannot  have  the  first  and  second  unless 
one  has  the  third  or  lowest. 

There  were  rumours  at  this  time  of  the  for- 
mation of  a  new  party;  really  the  Socialists  and 
Liberals,  as  the  Socialists  as  such  were  too  un- 
fashionable, in  too  bad  odour,  to  open  a  campaign 
against  the  military  under  their  own  name.  This 
talk  came  to  nothing. 

The  Chancellor  always  complained  bitterly  that 
he  could  not  communicate  in  cipher  via  wireless 
with  von  Bernstorff.  On  one  occasion  he  said  to 
me,  "How  can  I  arrange  as  I  wish  to  in  a  friendly 
way  the  Ancona  and  Lusitania  cases  if  I  cannot 
communicate  with  my  Ambassador?  Why  does 
the  United  States  Government  not  allow  me  to 
communicate  in  cipher?"  I  said,  "The  Foreign 

247 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

Office  tried  to  get  me  to  procure  a  safe-conduct 
for  the  notorious  von  Rintelen  on  the  pretense 
that  he  was  going  to  do  charitable  work  for 
Belgium  in  America;  perhaps  Washington  thinks 
you  want  to  communicate  with  people  like  that.'' 
The  Chancellor  then  changed  the  subject  and  said 
that  there  would  be  bad  feeling  in  Germany 
against  America  after  the  war.  I  answered  that 
that  idea  had  been  expressed  by  a  great  many 
Germans  and  German  newspapers,  and  that  I  had 
had  private  letters  from  a  great  many  Americans 
who  wrote  that  if  Germany  intended  to  make 
war  on  America,  after  this  war,  perhaps  we  had 
better  go  in  now.  He  then  very  amiably  said 
that  war  with  America  would  be  ridiculous.  He 
asked  me  why  public  opinion  in  America  was 
against  Germany,  and  I  answered  that  matters 
like  the  Cavell  case  had  made  a  bad  impression 
in  America  and  that  I  knew  personally  that  even 
the  Kaiser  did  not  approve  of  the  torpedoing  of 
the  Lnsitania.  The  Chancellor  said,  "How 
about  the  Baralongf"  I  replied  that  I  did  not 
know  the  details  and  that  there  seemed  much 
doubt  and  confusion  about  that  affair,  but  that 
there  was  no  doubt  about  the  fact  that  Miss 
Cavell  was  shot  and  that  she  was  a  woman.  I 
then  took  up  in  detail  with  him  the  treatment  of 
British  prisoners  and  said  that  this  bad  treatment 
could  not  go  on.  This  was  only  one  of  the  many 

248 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

times  when  I  complained  to  the  Chancellor  about 
the  condition  of  prisoners.  I  am  sure  that  he  did 
not  approve  of  the  manner  in  which  prisoners  of 
war  in  Germany  were  treated;  but  he  always 
complained  that  he  was  powerless  where  the  mili- 
tary were  concerned,  and  always  referred  me  to 
Bismarck's  memoirs. 

During  this  winter  of  submarine  controversy 
an  interview  with  von  Tirpitz,  thinly  veiled  as 
an  interview  with  a  "high  naval  authority,"  was 
published  in  that  usually  most  conservative  of 
newspapers,  the  Frankfurter  Zeitung.  In  this 
interview  the  "high  naval  authority"  advocated 
ruthless  submarine  war  with  England,  and  prom- 
ised to  bring  about  thereby  the  speedy  surrender 
of  that  country.  After  the  surrender,  which  was 
to  include  the  whole  British  fleet,  the  German 
fleet  \vith  the  surrendered  British  fleet  added  to 
its  force,  was  to  sail  for  America,  and  exact  from 
that  country  indemnities  enough  to  pay  the  whole 
cost  of  the  war. 

After  his  fall,  von  Tirpitz,  in  a  letter  to  some 
admirers  who  had  sent  him  verses  and  a  wreath, 
advocated  holding  the  coast  of  Flanders  as  a 
necessity  for  the  war  against  England  and  Amer- 
ica. 

The  successor  of  von  Tirpitz  was  Admiral  von 
Holtzendorff,  whose  brother  is  Ballin's  right 
hand  man  in  the  management  of  the  Ham- 

249 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

burg  American  Line.  Because  of  the  more  rea- 
sonable influence  and  surroundings  of  von  Holtz- 
endorff,  I  regarded  his  appointment  as  a  help 
towards  peaceful  relations  between  Germany  and 
America. 

I  have  told  in  another  chapter  how  the  Em- 
peror had  refused  to  receive  me  as  Ambassador 
of  a  country  which  was  supplying  munitions  to 
the  Allies. 

From  time  to  time  since  I  learned  of  this  in 
March,  1915,  I  kept  insisting  upon  my  right  as 
Ambassador  to  be  received  by  .the  Emperor;  and 
finally  early  in  October,  1915,  wrote  the  follow- 
ing letter  to  the  Chancellor: 

"Your  Excellency : 

Some  time  ago  I  requested  you  to  arrange  an 
audience  for  me  with  his  majesty. 

Please  take  no  further  trouble  about  this  mat- 
ter. 

Sincerely  yours, 

JAMES  W.  GERARD." 

This  seemed  to  have  the  desired  effect.  I  was 
informed  that  I  would  be  received  by  the  Em- 
peror in  the  new  palace  at  Potsdam  on  October 
twenty-second.  He  was  then  to  pay  a  flying  visit 
to  Berlin  to  receive  the  new  Peruvian  Minister 
and  one  or  two  others.  We  went  down  in  the 

250 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

train  to  Potsdam,  von  Jagow  accompanying  us, 
in  the  morning;  and  it  was  arranged  that  we 
should  return  on  the  train  leaving  Potsdam  a 
little  after  one  o'clock.  I  think  that  the  authori- 
ties of  the  palace  expected  that  I  would  be  with 
the  Emperor  for  a  few  minutes  only,  as  when 
I  was  shown  into  the  room  where  he  was,  a  large 
room  opening  from  the  famous  shell  hall  of  the 
palace,  the  Peruvian  Minister  and  the  others  to 
be  received  were  standing  waiting  in  that  hall. 

The  Emperor  was  alone  in  the  room  and  no  one 
was  present  at  our  interview.  He  was  dressed 
in  a  Hussar  uniform  of  the  new  field  grey,  the 
parade  uniform  of  which  the  frogs  and  trim- 
mings were  of  gold.  A  large  table  in  the  corner 
of  the  room  was  covered  with  maps,  compasses, 
scales  and  rulers;  and  looked  as  if  the  Emperor 
there,  in  company  with  some  of  his  aides,  or  pos- 
sibly the  chief  of  staff,  had  been  working  out 
the  plan  of  campaign  of  the  German  armies. 

The  Emperor  was  standing;  so,  naturally,  I 
stood  also;  and,  according  to  his  habit,  which  is 
quite  Rooseveltian,  he  stood  very  close  to  me  and 
talked  very  earnestly.  I  was  fortunately  able  to 
clear  up  two  distinct  points  which  he  had  against 
America. 

The  Emperor  said  that  he  had  read  in  a  Ger- 
man paper  that  a  number  of  submarines  built 
in  America  for  England  had  crossed  the  Atlantic 

251 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

to  England,  escorted  by  ships  of  the  American 
Navy.  I  was,  of  course,  able  to  deny  this  ridicu- 
lous story  at  the  time  and  furnish  definite  proofs 
later.  The  Emperor  complained  because  a  loan 
to  England  and  France  had  been  floated  in  Amer- 
ica. I  said  that  the  first  loan  to  a  belligerent 
floated  in  America  was  a  loan  to  Germany.  The 
Emperor  sent  for  some  of  his  staff  and  imme- 
diately inquired  into  the  matter.  The  members 
of  the  staff  confirmed  my  statement.  The  Em- 
peror said  that  he  would  not  have  permitted  the 
torpedoing  of  the  Lusitania  if  he  had  known,  and 
that  no  gentleman  would  kill  so  many  women 
and  children.  He  showed,  however,  great  bitter- 
ness against  the  United  States  and  repeatedly 
said,  "America  had  better  look  out  after  this 
war:"  and  "I  shall  stand  no  nonsense  from  Amer- 
ica after  the  war." 

The  interview  lasted  about  an  hour  and  a  quar- 
ter, and  when  I  finally  emerged  from  the  room 
the  officers  of  the  Emperor's  household  were  in 
such  a  state  of  agitation  that  I  feel  sure  they 
must  have  thought  that  something  fearful  had 
occurred.  As  I  walked  rapidly  towards  the  door 
of  the  palace  in  order  to  take  the  carriage  which 
was  to  drive  me  to  the  train,  one  of  them  walked 
along  beside  me  saying,  "Is  it  all  right?  Is  it 
all  right?" 

The  unfortunate  diplomats  who  were  to  have 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

been  received  and  who  had  been  standing  all  this 
time  outside  the  door  waiting  for  an  audience 
missed  their  train  and  their  luncheon. 

At  this  interview,  the  Emperor  looked  very 
careworn  and  seemed  nervous.  When  I  next 
saw  him,  however,  which  was  not  until  the  end  of 
April,  1916,  he  was  in  much  better  condition. 

I  was  so  fearful  in  reporting  the  dangerous 
part  of  this  interview,  on  account  of  the  many 
spies  not  only  in  my  own  Embassy  but  also  in 
the  State  Department,  that  I  sent  but  a  very  few 
words  in  a  roundabout  way  by  courier  direct  to 
the  President. 

The  year,  1916,  opened  with  this  great  ques- 
tion still  unsettled  and,  in  effect,  Germany  gave 
notice  that  after  March  first,  1916,  the  German 
submarines  would  sink  all  armed  merchantmen 
of  the  enemies  of  Germany  without  warning.  It 
is  not  my  place  here  to  go  into  the  agitation  of 
this  question  in  America  or  into  the  history  of 
the  votes  in  Congress,  which  in  fact  upheld  the 
policy  of  the  President.  A  proposal  as  to  armed 
merchantmen  was  issued  by  our  State  Depart- 
ment and  the  position  taken  in  this  was  appar- 
ently abandoned  at  the  time  of  the  settlement  of 
the  Sussex  case  to  which  I  now  refer. 

In  the  latter  half  of  March,  1916,  a  number  of 
boats  having  Americans  on  board  were  torpedoed 
without  warning.  These  boats  were  the  Eagle- 

253 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

point,  the  Englishman,  the  Manchester  Engineer 
and  the  Sussex.  One  American  was  killed  or 
drowned  on  the  Englishman,  but  the  issue  finally 
came  to  a  head  over  the  torpedoing  of  the  channel 
passenger  boat,  Sussex,  which  carried  passen- 
gers between  Folkstone  and  Dieppe,  France. 

On  March  twenty- fourth  the  Sussex  was  tor- 
pedoed near  the  coast  of  France.  Four  hundred 
and  thirty-six  persons,  of  whom  seventy-five 
were  Americans,  were  on  board.  The  captain 
and  a  number  of  the  passengers  saw  the  torpedo 
and  an  endeavour  was  made  to  avoid  it.  After 
the  boat  was  struck  the  many  passengers  took 
to  the  boats.  Three  Americans  were  injured  and 
over  forty  persons  lost  their  lives,  although  the 
boat  was  not  sunk  but  was  towed  to  Boulogne. 

I  was  instructed  to  inquire  from  the  German 
Government  as  to  whether  a  German  submarine 
had  sunk  the  Sussex.  The  Foreign  Office  finally, 
at  my  repeated  request,  called  on  the  Admiralty 
for  a  report  of  the  torpedoing  of  the  Sussex;  and 
finally  on  the  tenth  of  April  the  German  Note 
was  delivered  to  me.  In  the  meantime,  and  be- 
fore the  delivery  of  this  Note  I  had  been  assured 
again  and  again  that  the  Sussex  had  not  been 
torpedoed  by  a  German  submarine.  In  this  Note 
a  rough  sketch  was  enclosed,  said  to  have  been 
made  by  the  officer  commanding  the  submarine, 
of  a  vessel  which  he  admitted  he  had  torpedoed, 

254 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

in  the  same  locality  where  the  Sussex  had  been 
attacked  and  at  about  the  same  time  of  day.  It 
was  said  that  this  boat  which  was  torpedoed  was 
a  mine  layer  of  the  recently  built  Arabic  class 
and  that  a  great  explosion  which  was  observed 
to  occur  in  the  torpedoed  ship  warranted  the  cer- 
tain conclusion  that  great  amounts  of  munitions 
were  on  board.  The  Note  concluded :  "The  Ger- 
man Government  must  therefore  assume  that  in- 
jury to  the  Sussex  was  attributable  to  another 
cause  than  attack  by  a  German  submarine."  The 
Note  contained  an  offer  to  submit  any  difference 
of  opinion  that  might  develop  to  be  investigated 
by  a  mixed  commission  in  accordance  with  the 
Hague  Convention  of  1907.  The  Englishman 
and  the  Eaglepoint,  it  was  claimed,  were  attacked 
by  German  submarines  only  after  they  had  at- 
tempted to  escape,  and  an  explanation  was  given 
as  to  the  Manchester  Engineer.  With  reference 
to  the  Sussex,  the  note  continued:  "Should  the 
American  Government  have  at  its  disposal  other 
material  at  the  conclusion  of  the  case  of  the  Sus- 
sex, the  German  Government  would  ask  that  it 
be  communicated,  in  order  to  subject  this  mate- 
rial also  to  investigation." 

In  the  meantime,  American  naval  officers,  etc., 
had  been  engaged  in  collecting  facts  as  to  the 
sinking  of  the  Sussex,  and  this  evidence,  which 
seemed  overwhelming  and,  in  connection  with 

255 


JV1Y  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

the  admissions  in  the  German  note,  absolutely 
conclusive,  was  incorporated  in  the  note  sent  to 
Germany  in  which  Germany  was  notified:  "Un- 
less the  Imperial  Government  should  now  imme- 
diately declare  and  effect  abandonment  of  this 
present  method  of  submarine  warfare  against 
passenger  and  freight  carrying  vessels,  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  can  have  no  choice 
but  to  sever  diplomatic  relations  with  the  Ger- 
man Empire  altogether." 

The  issue  was  now  clearly  defined. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  fact  that  for  a 
long  time  there  had  been  growing  up  two  parties 
in  Germany.  One  party  headed  by  von  Tirpitz 
in  favour  of  what  the  Germans  called  rucksicht- 
loser,  or  ruthless  submarine  war,  in  which  all 
enemy  merchant  ships  were  to  be  sunk  without 
warning,  and  the  party  then  headed  by  the  Chan- 
cellor which  desired  to  avoid  a  conflict  with 
America  on  this  issue. 

As  I  have  explained  in  a  former  chapter,  the 
military  have  always  claimed  to  take  a  hand  in 
shaping  the  destinies  and  foreign  policies  of 
Germany.  When  the  Germans  began  to  turn 
their  attention  to  the  creation  of  a  fleet,  von  Tir- 
pitz was  the  man  who,  in  a  sense,  became  the 
leader  of  the  movement  and,  therefore,  the  cre- 
ator of  the  modern  navy  of  Germany.  A  skilful 
politician,  he  for  vears  dominated  the  Reichstag 

256 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

and  on  the  question  of  submarine  warfare  was 
most  efficiently  seconded  by  the  efforts  of  the 
Navy  League,  an  organization  having  perhaps 
one  million  members  throughout  Germany.  Al- 
though only  one  of  the  three  heads  of  the  navy 
(he  was  Secretary  of  the  Navy),  by  the  force  of 
his  personality,  by  the  political  position  which 
he  had  created  for  himself,  and  by  the  backing 
of  his  friends  in  the  Navy  League  he  really  domi- 
nated the  other  two  departments  of  the  navy, 
the  Marine  Staff  and  the  Marine  Cabinet. 

Like  most  Germans  of  the  ruling  class,  ambi- 
tion is  his  only  passion.  These  Spartans  do  not 
care  either  for  money  or  for  the  luxury  which 
it  brings.  Their  life  is  on  very  simple  lines,  both 
in  the  Army  and  Navy,  in  order  that  the  officers 
shall  not  vie  with  one  another  in  expenditure, 
and  in  order  that  the  poorer  officers  and  their 
wives  shall  not  be  subject  to  the  humiliation 
which  would  be  caused  if  they  had  to  live  in  con- 
stant contact  with  brother  officers  living  on  a 
more  luxurious  footing. 

Von  Tirpitz'  ambition  undoubtedly  led  him 
to  consider  himself  as  a  promising  candidate  for 
Bethmann-Hollweg's  shoes.  The  whole  subma- 
rine issue,  therefore,  became  not  only  a  question 
of  military  expediency  and  a  question  for  the 
Foreign  Office  to  decide  in  connection  with  the 
relations  of  America  to  Germany,  but  also  a  ques- 

257 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

tion  of  internal  politics,  a  means  of  forcing  the 
Chancellor  out  of  office.  The  advocates  for  the 
ruthless  war  were  drawn  from  the  Navy  and 
from  the  Army,  and  those  who  believed  in  the 
use  of  any  means  of  offence  against  their  ene- 
mies and  particularly  in  the  use  of  any  means 
that  would  stop  the  shipment  of  munitions  of  war 
to  the  Allies.  The  Army  and  the  Navy  were 
joined  by  the  Conservatives  and  by  all  those  who 
hoped  for  the  fall  of  the  Chancellor.  The  con- 
servative newspapers,  and  even  the  Roman 
Catholic  newspapers  were  violent  in  their  call 
for  ruthless  submarine  war  as  well  as  violent 
in  their  denunciations  of  the  United  States  of 
America. 

American  passengers  on  merchant  ships  of 
the  enemy  were  called  Schutzengel  (guardian 
angels),  and  caricatures  were  published,  such 
as  one  which  showed  the  mate  reporting  to  the 
Captain  of  an  English  boat  that  everything  was 
in  readiness  for  sailing  and  the  Captain's  in- 
quiry, "Are  you  sure  that  the  American  Schutz- 
engel is  on  board?"  The  numerous  notes  sent 
by  America  to  Germany  also  formed  a  frequent 
subject  of  caricature  and  I  remember  particu- 
larly one  quite  clever  one  in  the  paper  called 
Brummer,  representing  the  celebrations  in  a 
German  port  on  the  arrival  of  the  one  hundredth 
note  from  America  when  the  Mayor  of  the 

258 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

town  and  the  military,  flower  girls  and  singing 
societies  and  Turnverein  were  drawn  up  in  wel- 
coming array. 

The  liberal  papers  were  inclined  to  support 
the  Chancellor  in  his  apparent  intention  to  avoid 
an  open  break  with  America.  But  even  the  lib- 
eral papers  were  not  very  strong  in  their  stand. 

The  military,  of  course,  absolutely  despised 
America  and  claimed  that  America  could  do  no 
more  harm  by  declaring  war  than  it  was  doing 
then  to  Germany;  and  that  possibly  the  war 
preparations  of  America  might  cut  down  the 
amount  of  the  munitions  available  for  export 
to  the  enemies  of  the  Empire.  As  to  anything 
that  America  could  do  in  a  military  way,  the 
Navy  and  the  Army  were  unanimous  in  saying 
that  as  a  military  or  naval  factor  the  United 
States  might  be  considered  as  less  than  nothing. 
This  was  the  situation  when  the  last  Sussex 
Note  of  America  brought  matters  to  a  crisis, 
and  even  the  crisis  itself  was  considered  a  farce 
as  it  had  been  simmering  for  so  long  a  period. 

I  arranged  that  Colonel  House  should  have  an 
interview  with  the  Chancellor  at  this  time,  and 
after  dinner  one  night  he  had  a  long  talk  with  the 
Chancellor  in  which  the  dangers  of  the  situation 
were  pointed  out. 

With  this  arrival  of  the  last  American  Sussex 
Note,  I  felt  that  the  situation  was  almost  hope- 

259 


less ;  that  this  question  which  had  dragged  along 
for  so  long  must  now  inevitably  lead  to  a  break 
of  relations  and  possibly  to  war.  Von  Jagow 
had  the  same  idea  and  said  that  it  was  "fate," 
and  that  there  was  nothing  more  to  be  done.  I 
myself  felt  that  nothing  could  alter  public  opin- 
ion in  Germany ;  that  in  spite  of  von  Tirpitz'  fall, 
which  had  taken  place  some  time  before,  the  advo- 
cates of  ruthless  submarine  warfare  would  win, 
and  that  to  satisfy  them  Germany  would  risk  a 
break  with  America. 

I  was  sitting  in  my  office  in  a  rather  dazed 
and  despairing  state  when  Professor  Ludwig 
Stein,  proprietor  of  a  magazine  called  North  and 
South  and  a  writer  of  special  articles  on  Ger- 
many's foreign  relations  for  the  Vossische  Zei- 
tung,  under  the  name  of  "Diplomaticus,"  called 
to  see  me. 

He  informed  me  that  he  thought  the  situation 
was  not  yet  hopeless,  that  there  was  still  a  large 
party  of  reasonable  men  in  Germany  and  that  he 
thought  much  good  could  be  done  if  I  should  go 
to  the  great  general  headquarters  and  have  a 
talk  with  the  Kaiser,  who,  he  informed  me,  was 
reported  to  be  against  a  break. 

I  told  Dr.  Stein  that,  of  course,  I  was  per- 
fectly willing  to  go  if  there  was  the  slightest 
chance  of  preventing  war;  and  I  also  told  the 
Chancellor  that  if  he  was  going  to  decide  this 

260 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

question  in  favor  of  peace  it  would  be  possibly 
easier  for  him  if  the  decision  was  arrived  at  un- 
der the  protection,  as  it  were,  of  the  Emperor; 
or  that,  if  the  decision  lay  with  the  Emperor,  I 
might  possibly  be  able  to  help  in  convincing  him 
if  I  had  an  opportunity  to  lay  the  American  side 
of  the  case  before  him.  I  said,  moreover,  that 
I  was  ready  at  any  time  on  short  notice  to  pro- 
ceed to  the  Emperor's  headquarters. 

Dr.  Hecksher,  a  member  of  the  Reichstag,  who 
must  be  classed  among  the  reasonable  men  of 
Germany,  also  advocated  my  speaking  directly 
to  the  Kaiser. 


26  r 


CHAPTER  XIII 

MAINLY  COMMERCIAL, 

NOTHING  surprised  me  more,  as  the  war 
developed,  than  the  discovery  of  the  great 
variety  and  amount  of  goods  exported  from  Ger- 
many to  the  United  States. 

Goods  sent  from  the  United  States  to  Germany 
are  mainly  prime  materials:  approximately  one 
hundred  and  sixty  million  dollars  a  year  of  cot- 
ton; seventy-five  million  dollars  of  copper;  fifteen 
millions  of  wheat;  twenty  millions  of  animal  fats; 
ten  millions  of  mineral  oil  and  a  large  amount 
of  vegetable  oil.  Of  course,  the  amount  of  wheat 
is  especially  variable.  Some  manufactured  goods 
from  America  also  find  their  way  to  Germany 
to  the  extent  of  perhaps  seventy  millions  a  year, 
comprising  machinery  such  as  typewriters  and 
a  miscellaneous  line  of  machinery  and  manufac- 
tures. The  principal  exports  from  Germany  to 
America  consist  of  dye  stuffs  and  chemical  dyes, 
toys,  underwear,  surgical  instruments,  cutlery, 
stockings,  knit  goods,  etc.,  and  a  raw  material 
called  potash,  also  known  as  kali.  The  last  is  a 

262 


MAINLY  COMMERCIAL 

mineral  found  nowhere  in  the  world  except  in 
Germany  and  in  a  few  places  in  Austria.  Pot- 
ash is  essential  to  the  manufacture  of  many  fer- 
tilizers, fertilizer  being  composed  as  a  rule  of 
potash,  phosphates  and  nitrates.  The  nitrates  in 
past  years  have  been  exported  to  all  countries 
from  Chile.  Phosphate  rock  is  mined  in  South 
Carolina  and  Florida  and  several  other  places 
in  the  world.  Curiously  enough,  both  nitrates 
and  potash  are  essential  ingredients  also  of  ex- 
plosives used  in  war.  Since  the  war,  the  German 
supply  from  Chile  was  cut  off;  but  the  Germans, 
following  a  system  used  in  Norway  for  many 
years  before  the  war,  established  great  electrical 
plants  for  the  extraction  of  nitrates  from  the 
atmosphere.  Since  the  war,  American  agricul- 
ture has  suffered  for  want  of  potash  and  Ger- 
man agriculture  has  suffered  for  want  of  phos- 
phates, possibly  of  nitrates  also ;  because  I  doubt 
whether  sufficient  nitrogen  is  extracted  from  the 
air  in  Germany  to  provide  for  more  than  the 
needs  of  the  explosive  industry. 

The  dyestuff  industry  had  been  developed  to 
such  a  point  in  Germany  that  Germany  supplied 
the  whole  world.  In  the  first  months  of  the 
war  some  enterprising  Americans,  headed  by 
Herman  Metz,  chartered  a  boat,  called  The  Mat- 
anzas,  and  sent  it  to  Rotterdam  where  it  was 
loaded  with  a  cargo  of  German  dyestuff s.  The 

263 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

boat  sailed  under  the  American  flag  and  was 
not  interfered  with  by  the  English.  Later  on 
the  German  Department  of  the  Interior,  at  whose 
head  was  Delbriick,  refused  to  allow  dyestuffs  to 
leave  Germany  except  in  exchange  for  cotton, 
and,  finally,  the  export  of  dyestuffs  from  Ger- 
many ceased  and  other  countries  were  compelled 
to  take  up  the  question  of  manufacture.  This 
state  of  affairs  may  lead  to  the  establishment  of 
the  industry  permanently  in  the  United  States, 
although  that  industry  will  require  protection 
for  some  years,  as,  undoubtedly,  Germany  in  her 
desperate  effort  to  regain  a  monopoly  of  this 
trade  will  be  ready  to  spend  enormous  sums  in 
order  to  undersell  the  American  manufacturers 
and  drive  them  out  of  business. 

The  commercial  submarines,  Deutschland  and 
Bremen,  were  to  a  great  extent  built  with  money 
furnished  by  the  dyestuff  manufacturers,  who 
hoped  that  by  sending  dyestuffs  in  this  way  to 
America  they  could  prevent  the  development  of 
the  industry  there.  I  had  many  negotiations 
with  the  Foreign  Office  with  reference  to  this 
question  of  dyestuffs. 

The  export  of  toys  from  Germany  to  the 
United  States  forms  a  large  item  in  the  bill  which 
we  pay  annually  to  Germany.  Many  of  these 
toys  are  manufactured  by  the  people  in  their  own 
homes  in  the  picturesque  district  known  as  the 

264 


MAINLY  COMMERCIAL 

Black  Forest.  Of  course,  the  war  cut  off,  after 
a  time,  the  export  of  toys  from  Germany;  and 
the  American  child,  having  in  the  meantime 
learned  to  be  satisfied  with  some  other  article,  his 
little  brother  will  demand  this  very  article  next 
Christmas,  and  thus,  after  the  war,  Germany 
will  find  that  much  of  this  trade  has  been  per- 
manently lost. 

Just  as  the  textile  trade  of  the  United  States 
was  dependent  upon  the  German  dyestuffs  for 
colours,  so  the  sugar  beet  growers  of  America 
were  dependent  upon  Germany  for  their  seed. 
I  succeeded,  with  the  able  assistance  of  the  con- 
sul at  Magdeburg  and  Mr.  Winslow  of  my  staff, 
in  getting  shipments  of  beet  seed  out  of  Ger- 
many. I  have  heard  since  that  these  industries 
too,  are  being  developed  in  America,  and  seed 
obtained  from  other  countries,  such  as  Russia. 

Another  commodity  upon  which  a  great  in- 
dustry in  the  United  States  and  Mexico  depends 
is  cyanide.  The  discovery  of  the  cyanide  pro- 
cess of  treating  gold  and  silver  ores  permitted 
the  exploitation  of  many  mines  which  could  not 
be  worked  under  the  older  methods.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  there  was  a  small  manufac- 
tory of  cyanide  owned  by  Germans  at  Perth 
Amboy  and  Niagara  Falls,  but  most  of  the  cya- 
nide used  was  imported  from  Germany.  The 
American  German  Company  and  the  companies 

265 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

manufacturing  in  Germany  and  in  England  all 
operated  under  the  same  patents,  the  English 
and  German  companies  having  working  agree- 
ments as  to  the  distribution  of  business  through- 
out the  world. 

The  German  Vice-Chancellor  and  head  of  the 
Department  of  the  Interior,  Delbriick,  put  an  ex- 
port prohibition  on  cyanide  early  in  the  war ;  and 
most  pigheadedly  and  obstinately  claimed  that 
cyanide  was  manufactured  nowhere  but  in  Ger- 
many, and  that,  therefore,  if  he  allowed  cyanide 
to  leave  Germany  for  the  United  States  or  Mex- 
ico the  English  would  capture  it  and  would  use  it 
to  work  South  African  mines,  thus  adding  to  the 
stock  of  gold  and  power  in  war  of  the  British 
Empire.  It  was  a  long  time  before  the  German 
manufacturers  and  I  could  convince  this  gentle- 
man that  cyanide  sufficient  to  supply  all  the  Brit- 
ish mines  was  manufactured  near  Glasgow,  Scot- 
land. He  then  reluctantly  gave  a  permit  for  the 
export  of  a  thousand  tons  of  cyanide;  and  its 
arrival  in  the  United  States  permitted  many 
mines  there  and  in  Mexico  to  continue  opera- 
tions, and  saved  many  persons  from  being  thrown 
out  of  employment.  When  Delbriick  finally  gave 
a  permit  for  the  export  of  four  thousand  tons 
more  of  cyanide,  the  psychological  moment  had 
passed  and  we  could  not  obtain  through  our 
State  Department  a  pass  from  the  British. 

266 


I  am  convinced  that  Delbruck  made  a  great 
tactical  mistake  on  behalf  of  the  German  Gov- 
ernment when  he  imposed  this  prohibition 
against  export  of  goods  to  America.  Many 
manufacturers  of  textiles,  the  users  of  dyestuffs, 
medicines,  seeds  and  chemicals  in  all  forms,  were 
clamouring  for  certain  goods  and  chemicals  from 
Germany.  But  it  was  the  prohibition  against 
export  by  the  Germans  which  prevented  their 
receiving  these  goods.  If  it  had  been  the  Brit- 
ish blockade  alone  a  cry  might  have  arisen  in  the 
United  States  against  this  blockade  which  might 
have  materially  changed  the  international  situa- 
tion. 

The  Germans  also  refused  permission  for  the 
export  of  potash  from  Germany.  They  hoped 
thereby  to  induce  the  United  States  to  break  the 
British  blockade,  and  offered  cargoes  of  potash 
in  exchange  for  cargoes  of  cotton  or  cargoes  of 
foodstuffs.  The  Germans  claimed  that  potash 
was  used  in  the  manufacture  of  munitions  and 
that,  therefore,  in  no  event  would  they  permit 
the  export  unless  the  potash  was  consigned  to 
the  American  Government,  with  guarantees 
against  its  use  except  in  the  manufacture  of  fer- 
tilizer, this  to  be  checked  up  by  Germans  ap- 
pointed as  inspectors.  All  these  negotiations, 
however,  fell  through  and  no  potash  has  been 
exported  from  Germany  to  the  United  States 

267 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

since  the  commencement  of  the  war.  Enough 
potash,  however,  is  obtained  in  the  United  States 
for  munition  purposes  from  the  burning  of  sea- 
weed on  the  Pacific  Coast,  from  the  brines  in  a 
lake  in  Southern  California  and  from  a  rock 
called  alunite  in  Utah.  Potash  is  also  obtainable 
from  feldspar,  but  I  do  not  know  whether  any 
plant  has  been  established  for  its  production 
from  this  rock.  I  recently  heard  of  the  arrival 
of  some  potash  from  a  newly  discovered  field  in 
Brazil, and  there  have  been  rumours  of  its  discov- 
ery in  Spain.  I  do  not  know  how  good  this  Span- 
ish and  Brazilian  potash  is,  and  I  suppose  the 
German  potash  syndicate  will  immediately  en- 
deavour to  control  these  fields  in  order  to  hold 
the  potash  trade  of  the  world  in  its  grip. 

It  was  a  long  time  after  the  commencement 
of  the  war  before  England  declared  cotton  a  con- 
traband. I  think  this  was  because  of  the  fear 
of  irritating  the  United  States;  but,  in  the  mean- 
time, Germany  secured  a  great  quantity  of  cot- 
ton, which,  of  course,  was  used  or  stored  for  the 
manufacture  of  powder.  Since  the  cotton  im- 
ports have  been  cut  off  the  Germans  claim  that 
they  are  manufacturing  a  powder  equally  good 
by  using  wood  pulp.  Of  course,  I  have  not  been 
able  to  verify  this,  absolutely. 

Germany  had  endeavoured  before  the  war  in 
every  way  to  keep  American  goods  out  of  the 

268 


German  markets,  and  even  the  Prussian  state 
railways  are  used,  as  I  have  shown  in  the  article 
where  I  speak  of  the  attempt  to  establish  an  oil 
monopoly  in  Germany,  in  order  to  discriminate 
against  American  mineral  oils.  This  same 
method  has  been  applied  to  other  articles  such 
as  wood,  which  otherwise  might  be  imported 
from  America  and  in  some  cases  regulations  as 
to  the  inspection  of  meat,  etc.,  have  proved  more 
effective  in  keeping  American  goods  out  of  the 
market  than  a  prohibitive  tariff. 

The  meat  regulation  is  that  each  individual 
package  of  meat  must  be  opened  and  inspected; 
and,  of  course,  when  a  sausage  has  been  individ- 
ually made  to  sit  up  and  bark  no  one  desires  it  as 
an  article  of  food  thereafter.  American  apples 
were  also  discriminated  against  in  the  custom 
regulations  of  Germany.  Nor  could  I  induce  the 
German  Government  to  change  their  tariff  on 
canned  salmon,  an  article  which  would  prove  a 
welcome  addition  to  the  German  diet. 

The  German  workingman,  undoubtedly  the 
most  exploited  and  fooled  workingman  in  the 
world,  is  compelled  not  only  to  work  for  low 
wages  and  for  long  hours,  but  to  purchase  his 
food  at  rates  fixed  by  the  German  tariff  made 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Prussian  Junkers  and  land- 
owners. 

Of  course,  the  Prussian  Junkers  excuse  the  im- 
269 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

position  of  the  tariff  on  food  and  the  regulations 
made  to  prevent  the  entry  of  foodstuffs  on  the 
ground  that  German  agriculture  must  be  encour- 
aged, first,  in  order  to  enable  the  population  to 
subsist  in  time  of  war  and  blockade;  and,  sec- 
ondly, in  order  to  encourage  the  peasant  class 
which  furnishes  the  most  solid  soldiers  to  the 
Imperial  armies. 

The  nations  and  business  men  of  the  world  will 
have  to  face  after  the  war  a  new  condition  which 
we  may  call  socialized  buying  and  socialized  sell- 
ing. 

Not  long  after  the  commencement  of  the  war 
the  Germans  placed  a  prohibitive  tariff  upon 
the  import  of  certain  articles  of  luxury  such  as 
perfumes;  their  object,  of  course,  being  to  keep 
the  German  people  from  sending  money  out  of 
the  country  and  wasting  their  money  in  useless 
expenditures.  At  the  same  time  a  great  institu- 
tion was  formed  called  the  Central  Einkauf  Ge- 
sellschaft.  This  body,  formed  under  government 
auspices  of  men  appointed  from  civil  life,  is  some- 
what similar  to  one  of  our  national  defence 
boards.  Every  import  of  raw  material  into  Ger- 
many falls  into  the  hands  of  this  central  buying 
company,  and  if  a  German  desires  to  buy  any 
raw  material  for  use  in  his  factory  he  must  buy 
it  through  this  central  board. 

I  have  talked  with  members  of  this  board  and 
270 


MAINLY  COMMERCIAL 

they  all  unite  in  the  belief  that  this  system  will 
be  continued  after  the  war. 

For  instance,  if  a  man  in  Germany  wishes  to 
buy  an  automobile  or  a  pearl  necklace  or  a  case 
of  perfumery,  he  will  be  told,  "You  can  buy  this 
if  you  can  buy  it  in  Germany.  But  if  you  have 
to  send  to  America  for  the  automobile,  if  you 
have  to  send  to  Paris  for  the  pearls  or  the  per- 
fumery, you  cannot  buy  them."  In  this  way  the 
gold  supply  of  Germany  will  be  husbanded  and 
the  people  will  either  be  prevented  from  making 
comparatively  useless  expenditures  or  compelled 
to  spend  money  to  benefit  home  industry. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  a  man  desires  to  buy 
some  raw  material,  for  example,  copper,  cotton, 
leather,  wheat  or  something  of  that  kind,  he  will 
not  be  allowed  to  buy  abroad  on  his  own  hook. 
The  Central  Einkauf  Gesellschaft  will  see  that 
all  those  desiring  to  buy  cotton  or  copper  put  in 
their  orders  on  or  before  a  certain  date.  When 
the  orders  are  all  in,  the  quantities  called  for  will 
be  added  up  by  this  central  board;  and  then  one 
man,  representing  the  board,  will  be  in  a  position 
to  go  to  America  to  purchase  the  four  million 
bales  of  cotton  or  two  hundred  million  pounds  of 
copper. 

The  German  idea  is  that  this  one  board  will  be 
able  to  force  the  sellers  abroad  to  compete 
against  each  other  in  their  eagerness  to  sell.  The 

271 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

one  German  buyer  will  know  about  the  lowest 
price  at  which  the  sellers  can  sell  their  product. 
By  the  buyer's  standing  out  alone  with  this  great 
order  the  Germans  believe  that  the  sellers,  one 
by  one,  will  fall  into  his  hands  and  sell  their 
product  at  a  price  below  that  which  they  could 
obtain  if  the  individual  sellers  of  America  were 
meeting  the  individual  buyers  of  Germany  in  the 
open  market. 

When  the  total  amount  of  the  commodity  or- 
dered has  been  purchased,  it  will  be  divided  up 
among  the  German  buyers  who  put  in  their  or- 
ders with  the  central  company,  each  order  being 
charged  with  its  proportionate  share  of  the  ex- 
penses of  the  commission  and,  possibly,  an  ad- 
ditional sum  for  the  benefit  of  the  treasury  of 
the  Empire. 

Before  the  war  a  German  manufacturer  took 
me  over  his  great  factory  where  fifteen  thousand 
men  and  women  were  employed,  showed  me  great 
quantities  of  articles  made  from  copper,  and  said: 
"We  buy  this  copper  in  America  and  we  get  it 
a  cent  and  a  half  a  pound  less  than  we  should 
pay  for  it  because  our  government  permits  us 
to  combine  for  the  purpose  of  buying,  but  your 
government  does  not  allow  your  people  to  com- 
bine for  the  purpose  of  selling.  You  have  got 
lots  of  silly  people  who  become  envious  of  the  rich 

272 


MAINLY  COMMERCIAL 

and  pass  laws  to  prevent  combination,  which  is 
the  logical  development  of  all  industry." 

The  government  handling  of  exchange  during 
the  war  was  another  example  of  the  use  of  the 
centralised  power  of  the  Government  for  the 
benefit  of  the  whole  nation. 

In  the  first  year  of  the  war,  when  I  desired 
money  to  spend  in  Germany,  I  drew  a  check  on 
my  bank  in  New  York  in  triplicate  and  sent  a 
clerk  with  it  to  the  different  banks  in  Berlin,  to 
obtain  bids  in  marks,  selling  it  then,  naturally,  to 
the  highest  bidder.  But  soon  the  Government 
stepped  in.  The  Imperial  Bank  was  to  fix  a  daily 
rate  of  exchange,  and  banks  and  individuals  were 
forbidden  to  buy  or  sell  at  a  different  rate.  That 
this  fixed  rate  was  a  false  one,  fixed  to  the  advan- 
tage of  Germany,  I  proved  at  the  time  when  the 
German  official  rate  was  5.52  marks  for  a  dollar, 
by  sending  my  American  checks  to  Holland,  buy- 
ing Holland  money  with  them  and  German 
money  with  the  Holland  money,  in  this  manner 
obtaining  5.74  marks  for  each  dollar.  And  just 
before  leaving  Germany  I  sold  a  lot  of  American 
gold  to  a  German  bank  at  the  rate  of  6.42  marks 
per  dollar,  although  on  that  day  the  official  rate 
was  5.52  and  although  the  buyer  of  the  gold,  be- 
cause the  export  of  gold  was  forbidden,  would 
have  to  lose  interest  on  the  money  paid  me  or  on 
the  gold  purchased,  until  the  end  of  the  war. 

273 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

What  the  Germans  thought  of  the  value  of  the 
mark  is  shown  by  this  transaction. 

The  only  thing  that  can  maintain  a  fair  price 
after  the  war  for  the  products  of  American  firms, 
miners  and  manufacturers  is  permission  to  com- 
bine for  selling  abroad.  There  is  before  Con- 
gress a  bill  called  the  Webb  Bill  permitting  those 
engaged  in  export  trade  to  combine,  and  this  bill, 
which  is  manifestly  for  the  benefit  of  the  Amer- 
ican producer  of  raw  materials  and  foods  and 
manufactured  articles,  should  be  passed. 

It  was  also  part  of  our  commercial  work  to 
secure  permits  for  the  exportation  from  Belgium 
of  American  owned  goods  seized  by  Germany. 
We  succeeded  in  a  number  of  cases  in  getting 
these  goods  released.  In  other  cases,  the  Amer- 
ican owned  property  was  taken  over  by  the  gov- 
ernment, but  the  American  owners  were  com- 
pensated for  the  loss. 

Germany  took  over  belligerent  property  and 
put  it  in  the  hands  of  receivers.  In  all  cases 
where  the  majority  of  the  stock  of  a  German  cor- 
poration was  owned  by  another  corporation  or 
individuals  of  belligerent  nationality,  the  Ger- 
man corporation  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  a 
receiver.  The  German  Government,  however, 
would  not  allow  the  inquiry  into  the  stock  owner- 
ship to  go  further  than  the  first  holding  corpora- 
tion. There  were  many  cases  where  the  majority 

274 


MAINLY  COMMERCIAL 

of  the  stock  of  a  German  corporation  was  owned 
by  an  English  corporation  and  the  majority  of 
the  stock  of  the  English  corporation,  in  turn, 
owned  by  an  American  corporation  or  by  Ameri- 
cans. In  this  case  the  German  Government  re- 
fused to  consider  the  American  ownership  of  the 
English  stock,  and  put  the  German  company  un- 
der government  control. 

With  the  low  wages  paid  to  very  efficient  work- 
ingmen  who  worked  for  long  hours  and  with  no 
laws  against  combination,  it  was  always  a  mat- 
ter of  surprise  to  me  that  the  Germans  who  were 
in  the  process  of  getting  all  the  money  in  the 
world  should  have  allowed  their  military  autoc- 
racy to  drive  them  into  war. 

I  am  afraid  that,  after  this  war,  if  we  expect 
to  keep  a  place  for  our  trade  in  the  world,  we 
may  have  to  revise  some  of  our  ideas  as  to  so- 
called  trusts  and  the  Sherman  Law.  Trusts  or 
combinations  are  not  only  permitted,  but  even 
encouraged  in  Germany.  They  are  known  there 
as  "cartels"  and  the  difference  between  the 
American  trust  and  the  German  cartel  is  that  the 
American  trust  has,  as  it  were,  a  centralised  gov- 
ernment permanently  taking  over  and  combining 
the  competing  elements  in  any  given  business, 
while  in  Germany  the  competing  elements  form 
a  combination  by  contract  for  a  limited  number 
of  years.  This  combination  is  called  a  cartel  and 

275 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

during  these  years  each  member  of  the  cartel  is 
assigned  a  given  amount  of  the  total  production 
and  given  a  definite  share  of  the  profits  of  the 
combination.  The  German  cartel,  therefore,  as 
Consul  General  Skinner  aptly  said,  may  be  lik- 
ened to  a  confederation  existing  by  contract  for 
a  limited  period  of  time  and  subject  to  renewal 
only  at  the  will  of  its  members. 

It  may  be  that  competition  is  a  relic  of  bar- 
barism and  that  one  of  the  first  signs  of  a  higher 
civilisation  is  an  effort  to  modify  the  stress  of 
competition.  The  debates  of  Congress  tend  to 
show  that,  in  enacting  the  Sherman  Law,  Con- 
gress did  not  intend  to  forbid  the  restraint  of 
competition  among  those  in  the  same  business 
but  only  intended  to  prohibit  the  forming  of  a 
combination  by  those  who,  combined,  would  have 
a  monopoly  of  a  particular  business  or  product. 
It  is  easy  to  see  why  all  the  coal  mines  in  the 
country  should  be  prohibited  from  combining; 
but  it  is  not  easy  to  see  why  certain  people  en- 
gaged in  the  tobacco  business  should  be  prohib- 
ited from  taking  their  competitors  into  their  com- 
bination, because  tobacco  is  a  product  which 
could  be  raised  upon  millions  of  acres  of  our  land 
and  cannot  be  made  the  subject  of  a  monopoly. 

The  German  courts  have  expressly  said  that 
if  prices  are  so  low  that  the  manufacturers  of 
a  particular  article  see  financial  ruin  ahead,  a 

276 


MAINLY  COMMERCIAL 

formation  of  a  cartel  by  them  must  be  looked 
upon  as  a  justified  means  of  self-preservation. 
The  German  laws  are  directed  to  the  end  to 
which  it  seems  to  be  such  laws  should  logically 
be  directed;  namely,  to  the  prevention  of  unfair 
competition. 

So  long  as  the  question  of  monopoly  is  not 
involved,  competition  can  always  be  looked  for 
when  a  combination  is  making  too  great  prof- 
its ;  and  the  new  and  competing  corporation  and 
individuals  should  be  protected  by  law  against 
the  danger  of  price  cutting  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  driving  the  new  competitior  out  of  busi- 
ness. However,  it  must  be  remembered  that  a 
combination  acting  unfairly  in  competition  may 
be  more  oppressive  than  a  monopoly.  I  myself 
am  not  convinced  by  the  arguments  of  either  side. 
It  is  a  matter  for  the  most  serious  study. 

The  object  of  the  American  trust  has  been  to 
destroy  its  competitors.  The  object  of  the  Ger- 
man cartel  to  force  its  competitors  to  join  the 
cartel. 

In  fact  the  government  in  Germany  becomes 
part  of  these  cartels  and  takes  an  active  hand 
in  them,  as  witness  the  participation  of  the  Ger- 
man Government  in  the  potash  syndicate,  when 
contracts  made  by  certain  American  buyers  with 
German  mines  were  cancelled  and  all  the  potash 
producing  mines  of  Germany  and  Austria  forced 

277 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

into  one  confederation;  and  witness  the  attempt 
by  the  government,  which  I  have  described  in 
another  chapter,  to  take  over  and  make  a  mo- 
nopoly of  the  wholesale  and  retail  oil  business 
of  the  country. 

The  recent  closer  combination  of  dyestuff  in- 
dustries of  Germany,  with  the  express  purpose 
of  meeting  and  destroying  American  competi- 
tion after  the  war,  is  interesting  as  showing  Ger- 
man methods.  For  a  number  of  years  the  dye- 
stuff  industry  of  Germany  was  practically  con- 
trolled by  six  great  companies,  some  of  these 
companies  employing  as  high  as  five  hundred 
chemists  in  research  work.  In  1916  these  six 
companies  made  an  agreement  looking  to  a  still 
closer  alliance  not  only  for  the  distribution  of 
the  product  but  also  for  the  distribution  of  ideas 
and  trade  secrets.  For  years,  these  great  com- 
mercial companies  supplied  all  the  countries  of 
the  world  not  only  with  dyestuffs  and  other  chem- 
ical products  but  also  with  medicines  discovered 
by  their  chemists  and  made  from  coal  tar ;  which, 
although  really  nothing  more  than  patent  medi- 
cines, were  put  upon  the  market  as  new  and  great 
and  beneficial  discoveries  in  medicine.  The 
Badische  Anilin  and  Soda  Fabrik,  with  a  capital 
of  fifty- four  million  marks  has  paid  dividends  in 
the  ten  years  from  1903  to  1913,  averaging  over 
twenty-six  per  cent. 

278 


MAINLY  COMMERCIAL 

The  Farbwerke  Meister  Lucius  und  Bruning  at 
Hoeckst,  near  Frankfort,  during  the  same  period, 
with  a  capital  of  fifty  million  marks,  has  paid 
dividends  averaging  over  twenty-seven  per  cent; 
and  the  chemical  works  of  Bayer  and  Company, 
near  Cologne,  during  the  same  period  with  a 
capital  of  fifty-four  millions  of  marks  has  paid 
dividends  averaging  over  thirty  per  cent. 

Much  of  the  commercial  success  of  the  Ger- 
mans during  the  last  forty  years  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  each  manufacturer,  each  discoverer  in 
Germany,  each  exporter  knew  that  the  whole 
weight  and  power  of  the  Government  was  behind 
him  in  his  efforts  to  increase  his  business.  On  the 
other  hand,  in  America,  business  men  have  been 
terrorized,  almost  into  inaction,  by  constant 
prosecutions.  What  was  a  crime  in  one  part  of 
the  United  States,  under  one  Circuit  Court  of 
Appeals,  was  a  perfectly  legitimate  act  in  an- 
other. 

If  we  have  to  meet  the  intense  competition  of 
Germany  after  the  war,  we  have  got  to  view  all 
these  problems  from  new  angles.  For  instance, 
there  is  the  question  of  free  ports.  Representa- 
tive Murray  Hulbert  has  introduced,  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  a  resolution  directing 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  Secretary  of 
War  and  the  Secretary  of  Commerce  to  report  to 
Congress  as  to  the  advisability  of  the  establish- 

279 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

ment  of  free  ports  within  the  limits  of  the  estab- 
lished customs  of  the  United  States.  Free  ports 
exist  in  Germany  and  have  existed  for  a  long 
time,  although  Germany  is  a  country  with  a  pro- 
tective tariff.  In  a  free  port  raw  goods  are  manu- 
factured and  then  exported,  of  course  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  country  permitting  the  establish- 
ment of  free  ports,  because  by  this  manufacture 
of  raw  materials  and  their  re-export,  without 
being  subject  to  duty,  money  is  earned  by  the 
manufacturers  to  the  benefit  of  their  own  coun- 
try and  employment  is  given  to  many  working- 
men.  This,  of  course,  improves  the  condition  of 
these  workingmen  and  of  all  others  in  the  coun- 
try; as  it  is  self-evident  that  the  employment  of 
each  workingman  in  an  industry,  which  would 
not  exist  except  for  the  existence  of  the  free 
port,  withdraws  that  workingman  from  the  gen- 
eral labour  market  and,  therefore,  benefits  the 
position  of  his  remaining  fellow  labourers. 

Although  free  ports  do  not  exist  in  the  United 
States,  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  give  certain 
industries,  by  means  of  what  are  known  as 
"drawbacks,"  the  same  benefit  that  they  would 
enjoy  were  free  ports  existant  in  our  country. 

Thus  the  refiners  of  raw  sugar  from  Cuba  pay 
a  duty  on  this  sugar  when  it  enters  the  United 
States,  but  receive  this  duty  back  when  a  corre- 

280  " 


MAINLY  COMMERCIAL 

spending  amount  of  refined  sugar  is  exported  to 
other  countries. 

There  has  lately  been  an  attack  made  upon  this 
system  in  the  case,  however,  of  the  sugar  refin- 
ers only,  and  the  question  has  been  treated  in 
some  newspapers  as  if  these  refiners  were  ob- 
taining some  unfair  advantage  from  the  govern- 
ment, whereas,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  allow- 
ance of  these  "drawbacks"  enables  the  sugar  re- 
finers to  carry  on  the  refining  of  the  sugar  for 
export  much  as  they  would  if  their  refineries  ex- 
isted in  free  ports  modelled  on  the  German  sys- 
tem. 

The  repeal  of  the  provision  of  allowing  "draw- 
backs" in  this  and  other  industries  will  probably 
send  the  industries  to  Canada  or  some  other  ter- 
ritory where  this  system,  equivalent  to  the  free 
port,  is  permitted  to  exist. 

A  few  days  before  I  left  Germany  I  had  a  con- 
versation with  a  manufacturer  of  munitions  who 
employs  about  eighteen  thousand  people  in  his 
factories,  which,  before  the  war,  manufactured 
articles  other  than  munitions.  I  asked  him  how 
the  government  treated  the  manufacturers  of  mu- 
nitions, and  he  said  that  they  were  allowed  to 
make  good  profits,  although  they  had  to  pay  out 
a  great  proportion  of  these  profits  in  the  form  of 
taxes  on  their  excess  or  war  profits;  that  the 
government  desired  to  encourage  manufacturers 

281 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

to  turn  their  factories  into  factories  for  the  man- 
ufacture of  all  articles  in  the  war  and  required  by 
the  nation  in  sustaining  war ;  and  that  the  manu- 
facturers would  do  this  provided  that  it  were 
only  a  question  as  to  how  much  of  their  profits 
they  would  be  allowed  to  keep,  but  that  if  the 
Government  had  attempted  to  fix  prices  so  low 
that  there  would  have  been  a  doubt  as  to  whether 
the  manufacturer  could  make  a  profit  or  not,  the 
production  of  articles  required  for  war  would 
never  have  reached  the  high  mark  that  it  had  in 
Germany. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  about  the  only  tax  imposed 
in  Germany  since  the  outbreak  of  the  war  has 
been  the  tax  upon  cost  or  war  profits.  It  has 
been  the  policy  of  Germany  to  pay  for  the  war  by 
great  loans  raised  by  popular  subscription,  after 
authorisation  by  the  Reichstag.  I  calculate  that 
the  amounts  thus  raised,  together  with  the  float- 
ing indebtedness,  amount  to  date  to  about  eighty 
billions  of  marks. 

For  a  long  time  the  Germans  expected  that 
the  expenses  of  the  war  would  be  paid  from  the 
indemnities  to  be  recovered  by  Germany  from 
the  nations  at  war  with  it. 

Helfferich  shadowed  this  forth  in  his  speech  in 
the  Reichstag,  on  August  20,  1915,  when  he  said : 
"If  we  wish  to  have  the  power  to  settle  the  terms 
of  peace  according  to  our  interests  and  our  re- 

282 


MAINLY  COMMERCIAL 

quirements,  then  we  must  not  forget  the  question 
of  cost.  We  must  have  in  view  that  the  whole 
future  activity  of  our  people,  so  far  as  this  is  at 
all  possible,  shall  be  free  from  burdens.  The 
leaden  weight  of  billions  has  been  earned  by  the 
instigators  of  this  war,  and  in  the  future  they, 
rather  than  we,  will  drag  it  about  after  them," 

Of  course,  by  "instigators  of  the  war"  Helffer- 
ich  meant  the  opponents  of  Germany,  but  I  think 
that  unconsciously  he  was  a  true  prophet  and  that 
the  "leaden  weight  of  the  billions"  which  this 
war  has  cost  Germany  will  be  dragged  about  after 
the  war  by  Germany,  the  real  instigator  of  this 
world  calamity. 

In  December,  1915,  Helfferich  voiced  the  com- 
fortable plea  that,  because  the  Germans  were 
spending  their  money  raised  by  the  war  loans  in 
Germany,  the  weight  of  these  loans  was  not  a  real 
weight  upon  the  German  people.  He  said :  "We 
are  paying  the  money  almost  exclusively  to  our- 
selves ;  while  the  enemy  is  paying  its  loans  abroad 
—a  guarantee  that  in  the  future  we  shall  main- 
tain the  advantage." 

This  belief  of  the  Germans  and  Helfferich  is 
one  of  the  notable  fallacies  of  the  war.  The  Ger- 
man war  loans  have  been  subscribed  mainly  by 
the  great  companies  of  Germany;  by  the  Sav- 
ings Banks,  the  Banks,  the  Life  and  Fire  Insu- 
rance and  Accident  Insurance  Companies,  etc. 

283 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

Furthermore,  these  loans  have  been  pyra- 
mided ;  that  is  to  say,  a  man  who  subscribed  and 
paid  for  one  hundred  thousand  marks  of  loan 
number  one  could,  when  loan  number  two  was 
called  for,  take  the  bonds  he  had  bought  of  loan 
number  one  to  his  bank  and  on  his  agreement 
to  spend  the  proceeds  in  subscribing  to  loan  num- 
ber two,  borrow  from  the  bank  eighty  thousand 
marks  on  the  security  of  his  first  loan  bonds,  and 
so  on. 

There  is  an1  annual  increment,  not  easily  ascer- 
tainable  with  exactness,  but  approximately  ascer- 
tainable  to  the  wealth  of  every  country  in  the 
world.  Just  as  when  a  man  is  working  a  farm 
there  is  in  normal  years  an  increment  or  accretion 
of  wealth  or  income  to  him  above  the  cost  of  the 
production  of  the  products  of  the  soil  which  he 
sells,  there  is  such  an  annual  increment  to  the 
wealth  of  each  country  taken  as  a  whole.  Some 
experts  have  told  me  they  calculated  that,  at  the 
outside,  in  prosperous  peace  times  the  annual  in- 
crement of  German  wealth  is  ten  billion  marks. 

Now  when  we  have  the  annual  interest  to  be 
paid  by  Germany  exceeding  the  annual  increment 
of  the  country,  the  social  and  even  moral  bank- 
ruptcy of  the  country  must  ensue.  If  repudia- 
tion of  the  loan  or  any  part  of  it  is  then  forced, 
the  loss  naturally  falls  upon  those  who  have  taken 
the  loan.  The  working-man  or  small  capitalist, 

284 


MAINLY  COMMERCIAL 

who  put  all  his  savings  in  the  war  loan,  is  with- 
out support  for  his  old  age,  and  so  with  the  man 
who  took  insurance  in  the  Insurance  Companies 
or  put  his  savings  in  a  bank.  If  that  bank  be- 
comes bankrupt  through  repudiation  of  the  war 
loan,  you  then  have  the  country  in  a  position 
where  the  able-bodied  are  all  working  to  pay 
what  they  can  towards  the  interest  of  the  govern- 
ment loan,  after  earning  enough  to  keep  them- 
selves and  their  families  alive;  and  the  old  and 
the  young,  without  support  and  deprived  of  their 
savings,  become  mere  poor-house  burdens  on  the 
community. 

Already  the  mere  interest  of  the  war  loan  of 
Germany  amounts  to  four  billions  of  marks  a 
year;  to  this  must  be  added,  of  course,  the  inter- 
est of  the  previous  indebtedness  of  the  country 
and  of  each  political  subdivision  thereof,  includ- 
ing cities,  all  of  which  have  added  to  their  before- 
the-war  debt,  by  incurring  great  debts  to  help 
the  destitute  in  this  war;  and,  of  course,  to  all 
this  must  be  added  the  expenses  of  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  government  and  the  maintenance 
of  the  army  and  navy. 

It  is  the  contemplation  of  this  state  of  affairs, 
when  he  is  convinced  that  indemnities  are  not  to 
be  exacted  from  other  countries,  that  will  do 
most  to  persuade  the  average  intelligent  German 
business  man  that  peace  must  be  had  at  any  cost. 

285 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

.WORK  FOR  THE  GERMANS 

THE  interests  of  Germany  in  France,  Eng- 
land and  Russia  were  placed  with  our 
American  Ambassadors  in  these  countries.  This, 
of  course,  entailed  much  work  upon  our  Embassy, 
because  we  were  the  medium  of  communication 
between  the  German  Government  and  these  Am- 
bassadors. I  found  it  necessary  to  establish  a 
special  department  to  look  after  these  matters. 
At  its  head  was  Barclay  Rives  who  had  been  for 
many  years  in  our  diplomatic  service  and  who 
joined  my  Embassy  at  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
First  Secretary  of  our  Embassy  in  Vienna  for 
ten  or  twelve  years,  he  spoke  German  perfectly 
and  was  acquainted  with  many  Germans  and 
Austrians.  Inquiries  about  Germans  who  were 
prisoners,  negotiations  relative  to  the  treatment 
of  German  prisoners,  and  so  on,  came  under  this 
department. 

One  example  will  show  the  nature  of  this  work. 
When  the  Germans  invaded  France,  a  German 
cavalry  patrol  with  two  officers,  von  Schierstaedt 

286 


WORK  FOR  THE  GERMANS 

and  Count  Schwerin,  and  several  men  penetrated 
as  far  as  the  forest  of  Fontainebleau,  south  of 
Paris.  There  they  got  out  of  touch  with  the 
German  forces  and  wandered  about  for  days  in 
the  forest.  In  the  course  of  their  wanderings 
they  requisitioned  some  food  from  the  inhabi- 
tants, and  took,  I  believe,  an  old  coat  for  one 
of  the  officers  who  had  lost  his,  and  requisitioned 
a  wagon  to  carry  a  wounded  man.  After  their 
surrender  to  the  French,  the  two  officers  were 
tried  by  a  French  court  martial,  charged  with 
pillaging  and  sentenced  to  be  degraded  from  their 
rank  and  transported  to  Cayenne  (the  Devil's 
Island  of  the  Dreyfus  case) .  The  Germans  made 
strong  representations,  and  our  very  skilled  Am- 
bassador in  Paris,  the  Honourable  William  C. 
Sharp,  took  up  the  matter  with  the  Foreign  Office 
and  succeeded  in  preventing  the  transportation 
of  the  officers.  The  sending  of  the  officers  and 
men,  however,  into  a  military  prison  where  they 
were  treated  as  convicts  caused  great  indignation 
throughout  Germany.  The  officers  had  many 
and  powerful  connections  in  their  own  country 
who  took  up  their  cause.  There  were  bitter  arti- 
cles in  the  German  press  and  caricatures  and 
cartoons  were  published. 

I  sent  Mr.  Rives  to  Paris  and  told  him  not  to 
leave  until  he  had  seen  these  officers.  He  re- 
mained in  Paris  some  weeks  and  finally  through 

287 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

Mr.  Sharp  obtained  permission  to  visit  the  offi- 
cers in  the  military  prison.  Later  the  French 
showed  a  tendency  to  be  lenient  in  this  case,  but 
it  was  hard  to  find  a  way  for  the  French  Gov- 
ernment to  back  down  gracefully.  Schierstaedt 
having  become  insane  in  the  meantime,  a  very 
clever  way  out  of  the  difficulty  was  suggested, 
I  believe  by  Mr.  Sharp.  Schierstaedt  having 
been  found  to  be  insane  was  presumably  insane 
at  the  time  of  the  patrol's  wandering  in  the  for- 
est of  Fontainebleau.  As  he  was  the  senior  officer, 
the  other  officer  and  the  men  under  him  were  not 
responsible  for  obeying  his  commands.  The  re- 
sult was  that  Schwerin  and  the  men  of  the  patrol 
were  put  in  a  regular  prison  camp  and  Schier- 
staedt was  very  kindly  sent  by  the  French  back 
to  Germany,  where  he  recovered  his  reason  suf- 
ficiently to  be  able  to  come  and  thank  me  for  the 
efforts  made  on  his  behalf. 

I  made  every  endeavour  so  far  as  it  lay  in  my 
power  to  oblige  the  Germans.  We  helped  them 
in  the  exchange  of  prisoners  and  the  care  of  Ger- 
man property  in  enemy  countries. 

There  were  rumours  in  Berlin  that  Germans 
taken  as  prisoners  in  German  African  Colonies 
were  forced  to  work  in  the  sun,  watched  and 
beaten  by  coloured  guards.  This  was  taken  up 
by  one  of  the  Grand  Dukes  of  Mecklenburg  who 
had  been  Governor  of  Togoland  and  who  also 

288 


WORK  FOR  THE  GERMANS 

took  great  interest  in  sending  clothes,  etc.,  to 
these  prisoners.  Germany  demanded  that  the 
prisoners  in  Africa  be  sent  to  a  more  temperate 
climate. 

Another  royalty  who  was  busied  with  prison- 
ers' affairs  was  Prince  Max  of  Baden.  He  is 
heir  to  the  throne  of  Baden,  although  not  a  son 
of  the  reigning  Duke.  He  is  very  popular  and, 
for  my  part,  I  admire  him  greatly.  He  travels 
with  Emerson's  essays  in  his  pocket  and  keeps  up 
with  the  thought  and  progress  of  all  countries. 
Baden  will  be  indeed  happy  in  having  such  a 
ruler.  Prince  Max  was  a  man  so  reasonable,  so 
human,  that  I  understand  that  von  Jagow  was 
in  favour  of  putting  him  at  the  head  of  a  cen- 
tral department  for  prisoners  of  war.  I  agreed 
with  von  Jagow  that  in  such  case  all  would  go 
smoothly  and  humanely.  Naturally,  von  Jagow 
could  only  mildly  hint  at  the  desirability  of  this 
appointment.  A  prince,  heir  to  one  of  the  thrones 
of  Germany,  with  the  rank  of  General  in  the 
army,  he  seemed  ideally  fitted  for  such  a  posi- 
tion, but  unfortunately  the  opposition  of  the  army 
and,  particularly,  of  the  representative  corps 
commanders  was  so  great  that  von  Jagow  told 
me  the  plan  was  impossible  of  realisation.  I  am 
sure  if  Prince  Max  had  been  at  the  head  of  such 
a  department,  Germany  would  not  now  be  suffer- 
ing from  the  odium  of  mistreating  its  prisoners, 

289 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

and  that  the  two  million  prisoners  of  war  in  Ger- 
many would  not  return  to  their  homes  imbued 
with  an  undying  hate. 

Prince  Max  was  very  helpful  in  connection 
with  the  American  mission  to  Russia  for  Ger- 
man prisoners  which  I  had  organised  and  which 
I  have  described  in  the  chapter  on  war  charities. 

All  complaints  made  by  the  Imperial  Govern- 
ment with  reference  to  the  treatment  of  German 
prisoners,  and  so  forth,  in  enemy  countries  were 
first  given  to  me  and  transmitted  by  our  Em- 
bassy to  the  American  Ambassadors  having 
charge  of  German  interests  in  enemy  countries. 
All  this,  with  the  correspondence  ensuing,  made 
a  great  amount  of  clerical  work. 

I  think  that  every  day  I  received  one  or  more 
Germans,  who  were  anxious  about  prisoner 
friends,  making  inquiries,  and  wishing  to  con- 
sult me  on  business  matters  in  the  United  States, 
etc.  All  of  these  people  showed  gratitude  for 
what  we  were  able  to  do  for  them,  but  their 
gratitude  was  only  a  drop  in  the  ocean  of  officially 
inspired  hatred  of  America. 


290 


CHAPTER  XV 

WAR  CHARITIES 

AS  soon  as  the  war  was  declared  and  millions 
of  men  marched  forward  intent  upon  kill- 
ing, hundreds  of  men  and  women  immediately 
took  up  the  problem  of  helping  the  soldiers,  the 
wounded  and  the  prisoners  and  of  caring  for 
those  left  behind  by  the  men  who  had  gone  to 
the  front. 

The  first  war  charity  to  come  under  my  obser- 
vation was  the  American  Red  Cross.  Two  units 
containing  three  doctors  and  about  twelve  nurses, 
each,  were  sent  to  Germany  by  the  American 
National  Red  Cross.  Before  their  arrival  I  took 
up  with  the  German  authorities  the  questions  as 
to  whether  these  would  be  accepted  and  where 
they  would  be  placed.  The  German  authorities 
accepted  the  units  and  at  first  decided  to  send 
one  to  each  front.  The  young  man  assigned  to 
the  West  front  was  Goldschmidt  Rothschild,  one 
of  the  last  descendants  of  the  great  Frankfort 
family  of  Rothschild.  He  had  been  attached  to 
the  German  Embassy  in  London  before  the  war. 

291 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

The  one  assigned  to  the  unit  for  the  East  front 
was  Count  Helie  de  Talleyrand.  Both  of  these 
young  men  spoke  English  perfectly  and  were 
chosen  for  that  reason,  and  both  have  many 
friends  in  England  and  America. 

Talleyrand  was  of  a  branch  of  the  celebrated 
Talleyrand  family  and  possessed  German  citizen- 
ship. During  the  Napoleonic  era  the  great  Tal- 
leyrand married  one  of  his  nephews  to  a  Prin- 
cess of  Courland  who,  with  her  sister,  was  joint 
heiress  of  the  principality  of  Sagan  in  Germany. 
The  share  of  the  other  sister  was  bought  by  the 
sister  who  married  young  Talleyrand,  and  the 
descendants  of  that  union  became  princes  of  Sa- 
gan and  held  the  Italian  title  of  Duke  de  Dino 
and  the  French  title  of  Duke  de  Valengay. 

Some  of  the  descendants  of  this  nephew  of  the 
great  Talleyrand  remained  in  Germany,  and  this 
young  Talleyrand,  assigned  to  the  Red  Cross 
unit,  belonged  to  that  branch.  Others  settled  in 
France,  and  among  these  was  the  last  holder  of 
the  title  and  the  Duke  de  Dino,  who  married, 
successively,  two  Americans,  Miss  Curtis  and 
Mrs.  Sampson.  It  was  a  custom  in  this  family 
that  the  holder  of  the  principal  title,  that  of  the 
Prince  of  Sagan,  allowed  the  next  two  members 
in  succession  to  bear  the  titles  of  Duke  de  Dino 
and  Duke  de  Valangay.  Before  the  last  Prince 
of  Sagan  died  in  France,  his  son  Helie  married 

292 


WAR  CHARITIES 

the  American,  Anna  Gould,  who  had  divorced  the 
Count  Castellane.  On  the  death  of  his  father  and 
in  accordance  with  the  statutes  of  the  House  of 
Sagan  the  members  of  the  family  who  were  Ger- 
man citizens  held  a  family  council  and,  with  the 
approval  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  passed 
over  the  succession  from  Anna  Gould's  husband 
to  her  son,  so  that  her  son  has  now  the  right  to 
the  title  and  not  his  father,  but  the  son  must 
become  a  German  citizen  at  his  majority. 

The  younger  brother  of  the  husband  of  Anna 
Gould  bears  the  title  of  Duke  de  Valengay  and 
is  the  divorced  husband  of  the  daughter  of  Levi 
P.  Morton,  formerly  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States.  This  young  Talleyrand  to  whom 
I  have  referred  and  who  was  assigned  to  the 
American  Red  Cross  unit,  although  he  was  a 
German  by  nationality,  did  not  wish  to  fight  in 
this  war  against  France  in  which  country  he  had 
so  many  friends  and  relations  and,  therefore, 
this  assignment  to  the  American  Red  Cross  was 
most  welcome  to  him. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  American  doctors  and 
nurses  in  Beflin,  it  was  decided  to  send  both 
units  to  the  East  front  and  to  put  one  in  the 
small  Silesian  town  of  Gleiwitz  and  the  other  in 
the  neighbouring  town  of  Kosel.  Count  Talley- 
rand went  with  these  two  units,  Goldschmidt 

293 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

Rothschild  being  attached  to  the  Prussian  Lega- 
tion in  Munich. 

We  had  a  reception  in  the  Embassy  for  these 
doctors  and  nurses  which  was  attended  by  Prince 
Hatzfeld,  Duke  of  Trachenberg,  who  was  head 
of  the  German  Red  Cross,  and  other  Germans 
interested  in  this  line  of  work.  The  Gleiwitz  and 
Kosel  units  remained  in  these  towns  for  about  a 
year  until  the  American  Red  Cross  withdrew  its 
units  from  Europe. 

At  about  the  time  of  the  withdrawal  of  these 
units,  I  had  heard  much  of  the  sufferings  of  Ger- 
man prisoners  in  Russia.  I  had  many  conversa- 
tions with  Zimmermann  of  the  German  Foreign 
Office  and  Prince  Hatzfeld  on  this  question,  as 
well  as  with  Prince  Max  of  Baden,  the  heir  pre- 
sumptive to  the  throne  of  that  country;  and  I 
finally  arranged  that  such  of  these  American 
doctors  and  nurses  as  volunteered  should  be  sent 
to  Russia  to  do  what  they  could  for  the  German 
prisoners  of  war  there.  Nine  doctors  and  thirty- 
eight  nurses  volunteered.  They  were  given  a 
great  reception  in  Berlin,  the  German  authori- 
ties placed  a  large  credit  in  the  hands  of  this 
mission,  and,  after  I  had  obtained  through  our 
State  Department  the  consent  of  the  Russian 
Government  for  the  admission  of  the  mission,  it 
started  from  Berlin  for  Petrograd.  The  Ger- 
man authorities  and  the  Germans,  as  a  whole, 

294 


WAR  CHARITIES 

were  very  much  pleased  with  this  arrangement. 
Officers  of  the  Prussian  army  were  present  at 
the  departure  of  the  trains  and  gave  flowers  to 
all  the  nurses.  It  is  very  unfortunate  that  after 
their  arrival  in  Russia  this  mission  was  ham- 
pered in  every  way,  and  had  the  greatest  diffi- 
culty in  obtaining  permission  to  do  any  work  at 
all.  Many  of  them,  however,  managed  to  get  in 
positions  where  they  assisted  the  German  pris- 
oners. For  instance,  in  one  town  where  there 
were  about  five  thousand  Germans  who  had  been 
sent  there  to  live  one  of  our  doctors  managed  to 
get  appointed  as  city  physician  and,  aided  by  sev- 
eral of  the  American  nurses,  was  able  to  do  a 
great  work  for  the  German  population.  Others 
of  our  nurses  managed  to  get  as  far  as  Tomsk  in 
Siberia  and  others  were  scattered  through  the 
Russian  Empire. 

Had  this  mission  under  Dr.  Snoddy  been  able 
to  carry  out  its  work  as  originally  planned,  it 
would  not  only  have  done  much  good  to  the 
German  prisoners  of  war,  but  would  have  helped 
a  great  deal  to  do  away  with  the  bitter  feeling 
entertained  by  Germans  towards  Americans. 
Even  with  the  limited  opportunity  given  this  mis- 
sion, it  undoubtedly  materially  helped  the  pris- 
oners. 

On  arriving  in  Berlin  on  their  way  home  to 
America  from  Gleiwitz  and  Kosel,  the  doctors 

295 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

and  nurses  of  these  American  units  were  all 
awarded  the  German  Red  Cross  Order  of  the 
second  class  and  those  who  had  been  in  Austria 
were  similarly  decorated  by  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  Government. 

Among  those  who  devoted  themselves  to  works 
of  charity  during  this  war  no  one  stands  higher 
than  Herbert  C.  Hoover. 

I  cannot  find  words  to  express  my  admiration 
for  this  man  whose  great  talents  for  organisation 
were  placed  at  the  service  of  humanity.  Every 
one  knows  of  what  he  accomplished  in  feeding 
the  inhabitants  of  Belgium  and  Northern  France. 
Mr.  Hoover  asked  me  to  become  one  of  the 
chairmen  of  the  International  Commission  for 
the  Relief  of  Belgium  and  I  was  happy  to  have 
the  opportunity  in  Berlin  to  second  his  efforts. 
There  was  considerable  business  in  connection 
with  the  work  of  the  commission.  I  had  many 
interviews  with  those  in  authority  with  reference 
to  getting  their  ships  through,  etc.  Mr.  Hoover 
and  I  called  on  the  Chancellor  and  endeavoured 
to  get  him  to  remit  the  fine  of  forty  million  francs 
a  month  which  the  Germans  had  imposed  upon 
Belgium.  This,  however,  the  Chancellor  refused 
to  do.  Later  on  in  April,  1915,  I  was  able  as  an 
eye-witness  to  see  how  efficiently  Mr.  Hoover's 
organisation  fed,  in  addition  to  the  people  of  Bel- 
gium, the  French  population  in  that  part  of 

296 


WAR  CHARITIES 

Northern  France  in  the  occupation  of  the  Ger- 
mans. 

Mr.  Hoover  surrounded  himself  with  an  able 
staff,  Mr.  Vernon  Kellogg  and  others,  and  in 
America  men  like  Mr.  A.  J.  Hemphill  were  his 
devoted  supporters. 

Early  in  1915,  Mr.  Ernest  P.  Bicknell,  who 
had  first  come  to  Germany  representing  the 
American  Red  Cross,  returned  representing  not 
only  that  organisation  but  also  the  Rockefeller 
Foundation.  With  him  was  Mr.  Wickliffe  Rose, 
also  of  the  Rockefeller  Foundation;  and  with 
these  two  gentlemen  I  took  up  the  question  of  the 
relief  of  Poland.  Mr.  Rose  and  Mr.  Bicknell  to- 
gether visited  Poland  and  saw  with  their  own 
eyes  the  necessity  for  relief.  A  meeting  was 
held  in  the  Reichstag  attended  by  Prince  Hatz- 
feld  of  the  German  Red  Cross,  Director  Gutt- 
mann,  of  the  Dresdener  Bank,  Geheimrat 
Lewald,  of  the  Imperial  Ministry  of  the  Interior, 
representing  the  German  Government,  and  many 
others  connected  with  the  government,  military 
and  financial  interests  of  Germany. 

The  Commission  for  the  Relief  in  Poland,  of 
which  I  was  to  be  chairman,  was  organised  and 
included  the  Spanish  Ambassador,  His  Excel- 
lency the  Bishop  of  Posen,  the  Prince  Bishop  of 
Cracow,  Jacob  H.  Schiff  of  New  York,  and 
others.  Messrs.  Warwick,  Greene  and  Wads- 

297 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

worth  were  to  take  up  the  actual  executive  work. 

In  conjunction  with  Messrs.  Rose  and  Bick- 
nell,  I  drew  up  a  sort  of  treaty,  having  particu- 
larly in  mind  certain  difficulties  encountered  by 
the  American  Relief  Commission  in  Belgium. 
The  main  point  in  this  treaty  was  that  the  Ger- 
man Government  agreed  not  to  requisition  either 
food  or  money  within  the  limits  of  the  territory 
to  be  relieved,  which  territory  comprised  that 
part  of  Poland  within  German  occupation  up  to 
within,  as  I  recall  it,  fifty  kilometres  of  the  firing 
line.  The  one  exception  was  that  a  fine  might 
be  levied  on  a  community  where  all  the  inhabi- 
tants had  made  themselves  jointly  and  severally 
liable  according  to  the  provisions  of  the  Hague 
Convention.  The  Rockefeller  Foundation  on  its 
part  agreed  to  pay  all  the  expenses  of  the  execu- 
tive work  of  the  commission.  This  treaty,  after 
being  submitted  to  General  Hindenburg  and  ap- 
proved by  him,  was  signed  by  Dr.  Lewald,  rep- 
resenting the  German  Government,  by  Mr.  Bick- 
nell,  representing  the  Rockefeller  Foundation, 
and  by  me,  representing  the  new  commission  for 
the  relief  of  Poland. 

Work  was  immediately  commenced  under  this 
arrangement  and,  so  far  as  possible,  food  was 
purchased  in  Holland  and  Denmark,  but  there 
was  little  to  be  had  in  these  countries.  The 
Allies,  however,  refused  to  allow  food  to  enter 

298 


WAR  CHARITIES 

Germany  for  the  purpose  of  this  commission,  and 
so  the  matter  fell  through.  Later,  when  the 
Allies  were  willing  to  permit  the  food  to  enter, 
it  was  the  German  Government  that  refused  to 
reaffirm  this  treaty  and  refused  to  agree  that  the 
German  army  of  occupation  should  not  requisi- 
tion food  in  occupied  Poland.  Of  course,  under 
these  circumstances,  no  one  could  expect  the  Al- 
lies to  consent  to  the  entry  of  food;  because  the 
obvious  result  would  be  that  the  Germans  would 
immediately,  following  the  precedent  established 
by  them  in  Northern  France,  take  all  the  food 
produced  in  the  country  for  their  army  and  the 
civil  population  of  Germany,  and  allow  the  Poles 
to  be  fed  with  food  sent  in  from  outside,  while 
perhaps  their  labour  was  utilised  in  the  very 
fields  the  products  of  which  were  destined  for 
German  consumption. 

There  is  no  question  that  the  sufferings  of  the 
people  of  Poland  have  been  very  great,  and  when 
the  history  of  Poland  during  the  war  comes  to 
be  written  the  world  will  stand  aghast  at  the  story 
of  her  sufferings.  It  is  a  great  pity  that  these 
various  schemes  for  relief  did  not  succeed.  The 
Rockefeller  Commission,  however,  up  to  the  time 
I  left  Germany  did  continue  to  carry  on  some 
measure  of  relief  and  succeeded  in  getting  in 
condensed  milk,  to  some  extent,  for  the  children 
of  that  unfortunate  country.  These  negotiations 

299 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

brought  me  in  contact  with  a  number  of  Poles 
resident  in  Berlin,  whom  I  found  most  eager  to 
do  what  they  could  to  relieve  the  situation.  I 
wish  here  to  express  my  admiration  for  the  work 
of  the  Rockefeller  Commission  in  Europe.  Not 
only  were  the  ideas  of  the  Commission  excellent 
and  businesslike  but  the  men  selected  to  carry 
them  into  effect  were' without  exception  men  of 
high  character  and  possessed  of  rare  executive 
ability. 

As  I  have  said  in  a  previous  chapter,  I  was 
ridiculed  in  the  American  newspapers  because 
I  had  suggested,  in  answer  to  a  cable  of  the 
League  of  Mercy,  that  some  work  should  be 
done  for  the  prisoners  of  war.  I  do  not  know 
whether  the  great  work  undertaken  by  Dr.  John 
R.  Mott  and  his  associates  was  suggested  by  my 
answer  or  not;  that  does  not  matter.  But  this 
work  undertaken  by  the  American  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
certainly  mattered  a  great  deal  to  the  prisoners  of 
war  in  Europe.  Dr.  Mott  after  serving  on  the 
Mexican  Commission,  has  gone  to  Russia  as  a 
member  of  the  Commission  to  that  country. 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  organisation  headed  by  Dr. 
Mott,  who  was  most  ably  assisted  by  the  Rev- 
erend Archibald  C.  Harte,  took  up  this  work, 
which  was  financed,  I  have  been  told,  by  the 
McCormick  family  of  Chicago,  Cleveland  H. 
Dodge,  John  D.  Rockefeller  and  others.  Mr. 

300 


WAR  CHARITIES 

Harte  obtained  permission  from  the  German 
authorities  for  the  erection  of  meeting  halls  and 
for  work  in  German  camps.  When  he  had  ob- 
tained this  authorisation  from  Germany  he  went 
to  Russia,  where  he  was  able  to  get  a  similar 
authorisation. 

At  first  in  Russia,  I  have  heard,  the  prisoners 
of  war  were  allowed  great  liberty  and  lived  un- 
guarded in  Siberian  villages  where  they  obtained 
milk,  bread,  butter,  eggs  and  honey  at  very  rea- 
sonable rates.  As  the  war  went  on  they  were 
more  and  more  confined  to  barracks  and  there 
their  situation  was  sad  indeed.  In  the  winter 
season,  it  is  dark  at  three  in  the  afternoon  and 
remains  dark  until  ten  the  following  morning. 
Of  course,  I  did  not  see  the  Russian  prison  camps. 
The  work  carried  on  there  was  similar  to  that 
carried  on  in  the  German  camps  by  Mr.  Harte 
and  his  band  of  devoted  assistants. 

I  was  particularly  interested  in  this  work  be- 
cause I  hoped  that  the  aid  given  to  the  German 
prisoners  of  war  in  Russia  would  help  to  do 
away  with  the  great  hate  and  prejudice  against 
Americans  in  Germany.  So  I  did  all  I  could,  not 
only  to  forward  Mr.  Harte's  work,  but  to  sug- 
gest and  organise  the  sending  of  the  expedition 
of  nurses  and  doctors,  which  I  have  already  de- 
scribed, to  the  Russian  camps. 

Of  course,  Mr.  Harte  in  this  work  did  not  at- 
301 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

tempt  to  cover  all  the  prison  camps  in  Germany. 
He  did  much  to  help  the  mental  and  physical  con- 
ditions of  the  prisoners  in  Ruhleben,  the  English 
civilian  camp  near  Berlin.  The  American  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  built  a  great  hall  where  religious  exercises 
were  held,  plays  and  lectures  given,  and  where 
prisoners  had  a  good  place  to  read  and  write  in 
during  the  day.  A  library  was  established  in 
this  building. 

The  work  carried  on  by  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  may 
be  briefly  described  as  coming  under  the  follow- 
ing heads :  religious  activities ;  educational  activi- 
ties; work  shops,  and  gardens;  physical  exercises 
and  out-door  sports;  diet  kitchens  for  convales- 
cents; libraries  and  music,  including  orchestra, 
choruses,  and  so  on. 

When  I  left  Germany  on  the  breaking  of 
diplomatic  relations,  a  number  of  these  Y.  M.  C. 
A.  workers  left  with  me. 

The  German  women  exhibited  notable  qualities 
in  war.  They  engaged  in  the  Red  Cross  work, 
including  the  preparation  of  supplies  and  ban- 
dages for  the  hospitals,  and  the  first  day  of 
mobilisation  saw  a  number  of  young  girls  at 
every  railway  station  in  the  country  with  food 
and  drink  for  the  passing  soldiers.  At  railway 
junctions  and  terminals  in  the  large  cities,  sta- 
tions W7ere  established  where  these  Red  Cross 
workers  gave  a  warm  meal  to  the  soldiers  passing 

302 


WAR  CHARITIES 

through.  In  these  terminal  stations  there  were 
also  women  workers  possessed  of  sufficient  skill 
to  change  the  dressings  of  the  lightly  wounded. 

On  the  Bellevuestrasse,  Frau  von  Ihne,  wife  of 
the  great  architect,  founded  a  home  for  blinded 
soldiers.  In  this  home  soldiers  were  taught  to 
make  brooms,  brushes,  baskets,  etc. 

German  women  who  had  country  places  turned 
these  into  homes  for  the  convalescent  wounded. 
But  perhaps  the  most  noteworthy  was  the  Na- 
tional Frauendienst  or  Service  for  Women, 
organised  the  first  day  of  the  war.  The  relief 
given  by  the  State  to  the  wives  and  children  of 
soldiers  was  distributed  from  stations  in  Berlin, 
and  in  the  neighbourhood  of  each  of  these  sta- 
tions the  Frauendienst  established  an  office  where 
women  were  always  in  attendance,  ready  to  give 
help  and  advice  to  the  soldiers'  wives.  There 
there  were  card-indexes  of  all  the  people  within 
the  district  and  of  their  needs.  At  the  time  I 
left  Germany  I  believe  that  there  were  upwards 
of  seven  thousand  women  engaged  in  Berlin  in 
social  service,  in  instructing  the  women  in  the 
new  art  of  cooking  without  milk,  eggs  or  fat  and 
seeing  to  it  that  the  children  had  their  fair  share 
of  milk.  It  is  due  to  the  efforts  of  these  social 
workers  that  the  rate  of  infant  mortality  in 
Berlin  decreased  during  the  war. 

A  war  always  causes  a  great  unsettling  in  busi- 
303 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

ness  and  trade;  people  no  longer  buy  as  many 
articles  of  luxury  and  the  workers  engaged  in 
the  production  of  these  articles  are  thrown  out 
of  employment.  In  Germany,  the  National 
Women's  Service,  acting  with  the  labour  ex- 
changes, did  its  best  to  find  new  positions  for 
those  thrown  out  of  work.  Women  were  helped 
over  a  period  of  poverty  until  they  could  find 
new  places  and  were  instructed  in  new  trades. 

Many  women  engaged  in  the  work  of  sending 
packages  containing  food  and  comforts  to  the 
soldiers  at  the  front  and  to  the  German  prisoners 
of  war  in  other  countries. 

Through  the  efforts  of  the  American  Associa- 
tion of  Commerce  and  Trade,  and  the  Embassy,  a 
free  restaurant  was  established  in  Berlin  in  one 
of  the  poorer  districts.  About  two  hundred  peo- 
ple were  fed  here  daily  in  a  hall  decorated  with 
flags  and  plants.  This  was  continued  even  after 
we  left  Germany. 

At  Christmas,  1916,  Mrs.  Gerard  and  I  visited 
this  kitchen  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wolf  and  General 
von  Kessel,  Commander  of  the  Mark  of  Bran- 
denburg, and  one  of  his  daughters.  Presents 
were  distributed  to  the  children  and  the  mothers 
received  an  order  for  goods  in  one  of  the  depart- 
ment stores.  The  German  Christmas  songs  were 
sung  and  when  a  little  German  child  offered  a 
prayer  for  peace,  I  do  not  think  there  was  any 

3°4 


WAR  CHARITIES 

one  present  who  could  refrain  from  weeping. 
Many  of  the  German  women  of  title,  prin- 
cesses, etc.,  established  base  hospitals  of  their 
own  and  seemed  to  manage  these  hospitals  with 
success. 


305 


CHAPTER  XVI 

HATE 

ON  my  way  from  Berlin  to  America,  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1917,  at  a  dinner  in  Paris,  I  met  the 
celebrated  Italian  historian,  Ferrero.  In  a  con- 
versation with  him  after  dinner,  I  reminded  him 
of  the  fact  that  both  he  and  a  Frenchman,  named 
Huret,  who  had  written  on  America,  had  stated 
in  their  books  that  the  thing  which  struck  them 
most  in  the  study  of  the  American  people  was  the 
absence  of  hate. 

Ferrero  recalled  this  and  in  the  discussion 
which  followed  and  in  which  the  French  novelist, 
Marcel  Prevost,  took  part,  all  agreed  that  there 
was  more  hate  in  Europe  than  in  America ;  first, 
because  the  peoples  of  Europe  were  confined  in 
small  space  and,  secondly,  because  the  European, 
whatever  his  rank  or  station,  lacked  the  opportu- 
nities for  advancement  and  consequently  the 
eagerness  to  press  on  ahead,  and  that  fixing  of 
the  thought  on  the  future,  instead  of  the  past, 
which  formed  part  of  the  American  character. 

In  a  few  hours  in  Europe  it  is  possible  to  travel 
306 


HATE 

in  an  automobile  across  countries  where  the  peo- 
ple differ  violently  from  the  countries  surround- 
ing them,  not  only  in  language,  customs  and  cos- 
tumes, but  also  in  methods  of  thought  and  physi- 
cal appearance. 

The  day  I  left  Berlin  I  went  to  see  Herr  von 
Gwinner,  head  of  the  Deutsche  Bank,  with  refer- 
ence to  a  charitable  fund  which  had  been  col- 
lected for  widows  and  orphans  in  Germany.  In 
our  talk,  von  Gwinner  said  that  Europeans  envied 
America  because  we  seemed  to  be  able  to  assimi- 
late all  those  people  who,  as  soon  as  they  landed 
on  our  shores,  sought  to  forget  their  old  race 
hatreds  and  endeavoured,  as  speedily  as  possible, 
to  adopt  American  clothes,  language  and  thought. 
I  told  him  I  thought  it  was  because  in  our  country 
we  did  not  try  to  force  any  one;  that  there  was 
nothing  to  prevent  a  Pole  speaking  Polish  and 
wearing  Polish  dress,  if  he  chose;  that  the  only 
weapon  we  used  against  those  who  desired  to 
uphold  the  customs  of  Europe  was  that  of  ridi- 
cule ;  and  that  it  was  the  repressive  measures  such 
as,  for  example,  the  repressive  action  taken  by 
Prussia  against  the  Poles  and  the  Danes,  the 
Alsatians  and  the  Lorrainers,  that  had  aroused 
a  combative  instinct  in  these  peoples  and  made 
them  cling  to  every  vestige  of  their  former  na- 
tionality. 

At  first,  with  the  coming  of  war,  the  concen- 
307 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

trated  hate  of  the  German  people  seemed  to  be 
turned  upon  the  Russians.  Even  Liebknecht, 
when  he  called  upon  me  in  order  to  show  that  he 
had  not  been  shot,  as  reported  in  America,  spoke 
of  the  perils  of  Czarismus  and  the  hatred  of  the 
German  people  for  the  Russians.  But  later,  and 
directed  by  the  master  hand  of  the  governing 
class,  all  the  hatred  of  the  Germans  was  concen- 
trated upon  England. 

The  cartoon  in  Punch  representing  a  Prussian 
family  having  its  morning  "Hate"  was,  in  some 
aspects,  not  at  all  exaggerated.  Hate  in  Ger- 
many is  cultivated  as  a  noble  passion,  and,  dur- 
ing the  war,  divines  and  generals  vied  with  each 
other  in  its  praise.  Early  in  1917,  the  Prussian 
General  in  command  at  Limburg  made  a  speech 
in  which  he  extolled  the  advantages  of  hate  and 
said  that  there  was  nothing  like  getting  up  in 
the  morning  after  having  passed  a  night  in 
thought  and  dreams  of  hate. 

The  phrase  "Gott  strafe  England"  seemed  to 
be  all  over  Germany.  It  was  printed  on  stamps 
to  be  affixed  to  the  back  of  letters  like  our  Red 
Cross  stamps.  I  even  found  my  German  body 
servant  in  the  Embassy  affixing  these  stamps  to 
the  back  of  all  letters,  official  and  otherwise,  that 
were  sent  out.  He  was  stopped  when  discovered. 
Paper  money  was  stamped  with  the  words: 
"Gott  strafe  England,"  "und  America"  being 

308 


O      R 


L      1      0      H 


N      D 


R      U 


"Wilson  and  his  Press  ,,QCDilfon  und  feine  Preffe 

is  not  America"  if!  nidjt 

£  i  n  e    a  m  e  r  I  f  a  n  i  f  d)  c    Kundgebung. 

7acjn«  mcdcc.    Crutccc  war  in  Trauerjlor  gcbiillt.    Jritdrid)  der 
(Srofjt  roar    finer  Jer  Ctftcn,  d«  .lie   mil  rjetjblul   trKmpftt 

bturf)tcti[rficn     Pfctofen      a  n  i  '  <TO  a  f  f  c  nlic  f«  , 


An    American    Demonstration. 

On  tiie  27  Ih  ol  |anuar>,  ihe  birthday  ol  the  Oernian 
Einperor,  an  immense  laurel -wreath  decorated  with  Ihe 
German  one!  American  flogs  was  placed  by  Americana  ot 
the  toot  ot  Hie  monument  to  Frederick  Ihe  Great.  The 
Amencar  fl?g  was  enshrouded  in  black  crape.  Frederick 

of  the  yo'jng  Republic,  after  it  had  won  its  freedom  from 
the  yoke  of  England,  at  the  price  of  ib  very  heart's  blood 
through  ycois  of  struggle.  His  successor,  Wilhelm  II., 
receives  thr  gratitude  of  America  in  the  fo::u  of  hypocritical 
phrases  and  war  supplies  to  his  mortal  enemy. 


THIS  PAGE  FROM  THE  SCURRILOUS  PUBLICATION  OF  MARTEN  AND 
HIS  COLLEAGUES  SHOWS  THE  PHOTOGRAPH  OF  THE  WREATH  AND 
THE  CRAPE-DRAPED  AMERICAN  FLAG 


HATE 

often  added  as  the  war  progressed  and  America 
refused  to  change  the  rules  of  the  game  and  stop 
the  shipment  of  supplies  to  the  Allies. 

Every  one  is  familiar  with  Lissauer's  "Hymn 
of  Hate."  It  is  not  extraordinary  that  one  man 
in  a  country  at  war  should  produce  a  composi- 
tion of  this  kind;  but  it  is  extraordinary  as  show- 
ing the  state  of  mind  of  the  whole  country,  that 
the  Emperor  should  have  given  him  the  high 
order  of  the  Red  Eagle  of  the  Second  Class  as  a 
reward  for  having  composed  this  extraordinary 
document. 

Undoubtedly  at  first  the  British  prisoners  of 
war  were  treated  very  roughly  and  were  starved 
and  beaten  by  their  guards  on  the  way  from  the 
front  to  the  concentration  camps.  Officers,  ob- 
jects usually  considered  more  than  sacred  in  Ger- 
many, even  when  wounded  were  subjected  to 
brutal  treatment  and  in  the  majority  of  their 
prisons  were  treated  more  like  convicts  than  offi- 
cers and  gentlemen. 

As  the  Germans  gradually  awoke  to  the  fact 
that  President  Wilson  was  not  afraid  of  the  Ger- 
man vote  and  that  the  export  of  supplies  from 
America  would  not  be  stopped,  this  stream  of 
hate  was  turned  on  America.  There  was  a  belief 
in  Germany  that  President  Wilson  was  opposed 
by  a  majority  of  people  of  the  United  States, 
that  he  did  not  represent  the  real  sentiment  of 

309 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

America,  and  that  the  sentiment  there  was 
favourable  to  Germany. 

Unfortunately  many  Americans  in  Germany 
encouraged  the  German  people  and  the  German 
Government  in  this  belief.  Americans  used  to 
travel  about,  giving  lectures  and  making  speeches 
attacking  their  own  country  and  their  own  Presi- 
dent, and  the  newspapers  published  many  letters 
of  similar  import  from  Americans  resident  in 
Germany. 

One  of  the  most  active  of  these  was  a  man 
named  Maurice  Somborn,  a  German  American, 
who  represented  in  Germany  an  American  busi- 
ness house.  He  made  it  a  practice  to  go  about 
in  Berlin  and  other  cities  and  stand  up  in  cafes 
and  beer  halls  in  order  to  make  addresses  attack- 
ing the  President  and  the  United  States.  So 
bold  did  he  become  that  he  even,  in  the  presence 
of  a  number  of  people  in  my  room,  one  day  said 
that  he  would  like  to  hang  Secretary  Bryan  as 
high  as  Haman  and  President  Wilson  one  foot 
higher.  The  American  newspapers  stated  that  I 
called  a  servant  and  had  him  thrown  out  of  the 
Embassy.  This  statement  is  not  entirely  true :  I 
selfishly  kept  that  pleasure  for  myself. 

The  case  of  Somborn  gave  me  an  idea  and  I 
cabled  to  the  Department  of  State  asking  author- 
ity to  take  up  the  passports  of  all  Americans  who 
abused  their  own  country  on  the  ground  that  they 

310 


HATE 

had  violated  the  right,  by  their  abuse,  to  the  pro- 
tection of  a  passport.  The  Department  of  State 
sustained  my  view  and,  by  my  direction,  the 
consul  in  Dresden  took  up  the  passports  of  a 
singer  named  Rains  and  a  gentleman  of  leisure 
named  Recknagel  who  had  united  in  addressing 
a  letter  to  the  Dresden  newspapers  abusing  the 
President.  It  was  sometime  before  I  got  Som- 
born's  passport  and  I  later  on  received  from  him 
the  apologies  of  a  broken  and  contrite  man  and 
obtained  permission  from  Washington  to  issue 
him  a  passport  in  order  to  enable  him  to  return 
to  America. 

Of  course,  these  vilifiers  of  their  own  country 
were  loud  in  their  denunciations  of  me,  but  the 
prospect  of  losing  the  protection  of  their  pass- 
ports kept  many  of  these  men  from  open  and 
treasonable  denunciation  of  their  own  country. 

The  Government  actually  encouraged  the  for- 
mation of  societies  which  had  for  their  very  ob- 
ject the  scattering  of  literature  attacking  the 
President  and  the  United  States.  The  most  con- 
spicuous of  these  organisations  was  the  so-called 
League  of  Truth.  Permanently  connected  with 
it  was  an  American  dentist  who  had  been  in  jail 
in  America  and  who  had  been  expelled  from 
Dresden  by  the  police  authorities  there.  The 
secretary  was  a  German  woman  who  posed  as 
an  American,  and  had  been  on  the  stage  as  a 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

snake  dancer.  The  principal  organiser  was  a 
German  named  Marten  who  had  won  the  favour 
of  the  German  authorities  by  writing  a  book  on 
Belgium  denying  that  any  atrocities  had  taken 
place  there.  Marten  secured  subscriptions  from 
many  Germans  and  Americans  resident  in  Ger- 
many, opened  headquarters  in  rooms  on  the  Pots- 
damerstrasse  and  engaged  in  the  business  of 
sending  out  pamphlets  and  leaflets  attacking 
America.  One  of  his  principal  supporters  was 
a  man  named  Stoddard  who  had  made  a  fortune 
by  giving  travel  lectures  in  America  and  who 
had  retired  to  his  handsome  villa,  in  Meran,  in 
Austria.  Stoddard  issued  a  pamphlet  entitled, 
"What  shall  we  do  with  Wilson?"  and  some 
atrocious  attempts  at  verse,  all  of  which  were 
sent  broadcast  by  the  League  of  Truth. 

This  was  done  with  the  express  permission  of 
the  German  authorities  because  during  the  war 
no  societies  or  associations  of  any  kind  could 
meet,  be  formed  or  act  without  the  express  per- 
mission and  superintendence  of  both  the  military 
and  police  authorities.  Any  one  who  has  lived 
in  Germany  knows  that  it  would  be  impossible 
even  in  peace  times  to  hang  a  sign  or  a  wreath 
on  a  public  statue  without  the  permission  of  the 
local  authorities ;  and  yet  on  the  Emperor's  birth- 
day, January  twenty-seventh,  1916,  this  League 
•f  Truth  was  permitted  to  place  an  enormous 

312 


HATE 

wreath,  over  four  feet  high,  on  the  statue  of 
Frederick  the  Great,  with  an  American  flag 
draped  in  mourning  attached,  and  a  silk  banner 
on  which  was  printed  in  large  letters  of  gold, 
"Wilson  and  his  press  are  not  America."  The 
League  of  Truth  then  had  a  photograph  taken 
of  this  wreath  which  was  sent  all  over  Germany, 
again,  of  course,  with  the  permission  of  the 
authorities.  The  wreath  and  attachments,  in 
spite  of  frequent  protests  on  my  part  to  Zimmer- 
mann  and  von  Jagow,  remained  in  this  conspicu- 
ous position  until  the  sixth  of  May,  1916.  After 
the  receipt  of  the  Sussex  Note,  I  again  called  von 
Jagow's  attention  to  the  presence  of  this  wreath, 
and  I  told  him  that  if  this  continuing  insult  to 
our  flag  and  President  was  not  taken  away  that 
I  would  go  the  next  day  with  a  cinematograph 
operator  and  take  it  away  myself.  The  next  day 
the  wreath  had  disappeared. 

This  League,  in  circulars,  occasionally  at- 
tacked me,  and  in  a  circular  which  they  distrib- 
uted shortly  after  my  return  to  Germany  at  the 
end  of  December,  1916,  it  was  stated,  "What  do 
you  think  of  the  American  Ambassador?  When 
he  came  to  Germany  after  his  trip  to  America 
he  brought  a  French  woman  with  him."  And 
the  worst  of  this  statement  was  that  it  was  true. 
But  the  League,  of  course,  did  not  state  that  my 
wife  came  with  me  bringing  her  French  maid  by 

313 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

the  express  permission  of  the  German  Foreign 
Office. 

I  have  had  occasion  many  times  to  wonder  at 
the  curious  twists  of  the  German  mind,  but  I 
have  never  been  able  to  understand  on  what  pos- 
sible theory  the  German  Government  permitted 
and  even  encouraged  the  existence  of  this  League 
of  Truth.  Certainly  the  actions  of  the  League, 
headed  by  a  snake  dancer  and  a  dentist,  would 
not  terrorise  the  American  Congress,  President 
Wilson  or  me  into  falling  in  with  all  the  views  of 
the  German  Government,  and  if  the  German  Gov- 
ernment was  desirous  of  either  the  President's 
friendship  or  mine  why  was  this  gang  of  good- 
for-nothings  allowed  to  insult  indiscriminately 
their  country,  their  President  and  their  Ambas- 
sador? 

One  of  the  friends  of  Marten,  head  of  this 

League,  was  ( )  ( ),  a  man  who 

at  the  time  he  was  an  officer  of  the  National 
Guard  of  the  State  of  New  York,  accepted  a  large 
sum  of  money  "for  expenses"  from  Bernstorff. 

Of  course,  in  any  country  abroad  acceptance 
by  an  officer  of  money  from  a  foreign  Ambas- 
sador could  not  be  explained  and  could  have  only 
one  result — a  blank  wall  and  firing  party  for 
the  receiver  of  foreign  pay.  Perhaps  we  have 
grown  so  indulgent,  so  soft  and  so  forgetful  of 
the  obligations  which  officers  owe  to  their  flag 


HATE 

and  country  that  on  ( )'s  return  from 

Germany  he  will  be  able  to  go  on  a  triumphant 
lecture  tour  through  the  United  States. 

There  was  published  in  Berlin  in  English  a 
rather  ridiculous  paper  called  the  Continental 
Times,  owned  by  an  Austrian  Jewess  who  had 
been  married  to  an  Englishman.  The  Foreign 
Office,  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  practically 
took  over  this  sheet  by  buying  monthly  many 
thousand  copies.  News  coloured  hysterically  to 
favour  the  Central  Empires  was  printed  in  this 
paper,  which  was  headed  "A  Paper  for  Amer- 
icans," under  the  editorship  of  an  Englishman  of 
decent  family  named  Stanhope,  who,  of  course, 
in  consequence  did  not  have  to  inhabit  the  prison 
camp  of  Ruhleben.  ( )  was  a  con- 
tributor to  this  newspaper,  and  scurrilous  articles 
attacking  President  Wilson  appeared.  Finally 

( )  wrote  a  lying  article  for  this  paper 

in  which  he  charged  that  Conger  of  the  Asso- 
ciated Press  had  learned  of  Sir  Roger  Case- 
ment's proposed  expedition ;  that  Conger  told  me ; 
that  I  cabled  the  news  to  Washington  to  the  State 
Department;  and  that  a  member  of  President 
Wilson's  Cabinet  then  gave  the  information  to 
the  British  Ambassador.  Later  in  a  wireless 

which  the  Foreign  Office  permitted  ( ) 

to    send    Senator    O'Gorman    of    New    York, 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

( )  varied  his  lie  and  charged  that  I  had 

sent  the  information  direct  to  England. 

The  Continental  Times  was  distributed  in  the 

prison  camps  and  after  ( )'s  article  I 

said  to  von  Jagow,  "I  have  had  enough  of  this 
nonsense  which  is  supported  by  the  Foreign  Office 
and  if  articles  of  the  nature  of  ( )'s  ap- 
pear again  I  shall  make  a  public  statement  that 
the  prisoners  of  war  in  Germany  are  subjected 
to  a  cruel  and  unusual  punishment  by  having  the 
lying  Continental  Times  placed  in  their  hands,  a 
paper  which  purports  to  be  published  for  Amer- 
icans but  which  is  supported  by  the  Foreign  Of- 
fice, owned  by  an  Austrian  and  edited  by  a 
renegade  Englishman!" 

This  Continental  Times  business  again  caused 
one  to  wonder  at  the  German  psychology  which 
seems  to  think  that  the  best  way  to  make  friends 
is  to  attack  them.  The  author  of  "The  Gentle 
Art  of  Making  Enemies"  must  have  attended  a 
German  school. 

An  Ambassador  is  supposed  to  be  protected 
but  not  even  when  I  filed  affidavits  in  the  Foreign 
Office,  in  1916,  made  by  the  ex-secretary  of  the 
"League  of  Truth"  and  by  a  man  who  was  con- 
stantly with  Marten  and  the  dentist,  that  Marten 
had  threatened  to  shoot  me,  did  the  Foreign  Office 
dare  or  wish  to  do  anything  against  this  ridicu- 
lous League.  These  affidavits  were  corroborated 

316 


HATE 

by  a  respectable  restaurant  keeper  in  Berlin  and 
his  assistants  who  testified  that  Marten  with  sev- 
eral ferocious  looking  German  officers  had  come 
to  his  restaurant  "looking"  for  me.  I  never  took 
any  precaution  against  these  lunatics  whom  I 
knew  to  be  a  bunch  of  cowardly  swindlers. 

Marten  and  his  friends  were  also  engaged  in  a 
propaganda  against  the  Jews. 

The  activities  of  Marten  were  caused  by  the 
fact  that  he  made  money  out  of  his  propaganda; 
as  numerous  fool  Germans  and  traitorous  Amer- 
icans contributed  to  his  war  chest,  and  by  the 
fact  that  his  work  was  so  favourably  received 
by  the  military  that  this  husky  coward  was  ex- 
cused from  all  military  service. 

It  seemed,  too,  as  if  the  Government  was  anx- 
ious to  cultivate  the  hate  against  America.  Long 
before  American  ammunition  was  delivered  in 
any  quantity  to  England  and  long  before  any  at 
all  was  delivered  to  France,  not  only  did  the  Gov- 
ernment influence  newspapers  and  official  ga- 
zettes, but  the  official  Communiques  alleged  that 
quantities  of  American  ammunition  were  being 
used  on  the  West  front. 

The  Government  seemed  to  think  that  if  it 
could  stir  up  enough  hate  against  America  in 
Germany  on  this  ammunition  question  the  Amer- 
icans would  become  terrorised  and  stop  the  ship- 
ment. 


,MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

The  Government  allowed  medals  to  be  struck 
in  honour  of  each  little  general  who  conquered  a 
town — "von  Emmich,  conqueror  of  Liege,"  etc., 
a  pernicious  practice  as  each  general  and  prince- 
ling wanted  to  continue  the  war  until  he  could 
get  his  face  on  a  medal — even  if  no  one  bought 
it.  But  the  climax  was  reached  when  medals 
celebrating  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania  were  sold 
throughout  Germany.  Even  if  the  sinking  of 
the  Lusitania  had  been  justified  only  one  who  has 
lived  in  Germany  since  the  war  can  understand 
the  disgustingly  bad  taste  which  can  gloat  over 
the  death  of  women  and  babies. 

I  can  recall  now  but  two  writers  in  all  Ger- 
many who  dared  to  say  a  good  word  for  Amer- 
ica. One  of  these,  Regierungsrat  Paul  Krause, 
son-in-law  of  Field  Marshal  Von  der  Goltz, 
wrote  an  article  in  January,  1917,  in  the  Lokal 
Anzeiger  pointing  out  the  American  side  of  the 
question  of  this  munition  shipment;  and  that  bold 
and  fearless  speaker  and  writer,  Maximilian 
Harden,  dared  to  make  a  defence  of  the  Amer- 
ican standpoint.  The  principal  article  in  one  of 
the  issues  of  his  paper,  Die  Zukunft,  was  headed 
"If  I  were  Wilson."  After  some  copies  had  been 
sold  the  issue  was  confiscated  by  the  police, 
whether  at  the  instance  of  the  military  or  at  the 
instance  of  the  Chancellor,  I  do  not  know. 
Every  one  had  the  impression  in  Berlin  that  this 


HATE 

confiscation  was  by  order  of  General  von  Kessel, 
the  War  Governor  of  the  Mark  of  Brandenburg. 

I  met  Harden  before  the  war  and  occasionally 
conversed  with  him  thereafter.  Once  in  a  while 
he  gave  a  lecture  in  the  great  hall  of  the  Phil- 
harmonic, always  filling  the  hall  to  overflowing. 
In  his  lectures,  which,  of  course,  were  carefully 
passed  on  by  the  police,  he  said  nothing  startling. 
His  newspaper  is  a  weekly  publication;  a  little 
book  about  seven  inches  by  four  and  a  half,  but 
wielding  an  influence  not  at  all  commensurate 
with  its  size. 

The  liberal  papers,  like  the  largest  paper  of 
Berlin,  the  Tageblatt,  edited  by  Theodor  Wolff, 
while  not  violently  against  America,  were  not 
favourable.  But  the  articles  in  the  Conservative 
papers  and  even  some  of  the  organs  of  the  Catho- 
lic Party  invariably  breathed  hatred  against 
everything  American. 

In  the  Reichstag,  America  and  President  Wil- 
son were  often  attacked  and  never  defended.  On 
May  thirtieth,  1916,  in  the  course  of  a  debate 
on  the  censorship,  Strasemann,  of  the  National 
Liberal  Party  and  of  the  branch  of  that  party 
with  Conservative  leanings,  violently  opposed 
President  Wilson  and  said  that  he  was  not 
wanted  as  a  peacemaker. 

Government,  newspapers  and  politicians  all 
united  in  opposing  America. 

3*9 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

I  believe  that  to-day  all  the  bitterness  of  the 
hate  formerly  concentrated  on  England  has  now 
been  concentrated  on  the  United  States.  The 
German-Americans  are  hated  worse  than  the  na- 
tive Americans.  They  have  deeply  disappointed 
the  Germans:  first,  because  although  German- 
Americans  contributed  enormously  towards  Ger- 
man war  charities  the  fact  of  this  contribution 
was  not  known  to  the  recipients  in  Germany. 
Money  sent  to  the  German  Red  Cross  from 
America  was  acknowledged  by  the  Red  Cross; 
but  no  publicity  was  given  in  Germany  to  the 
fact  that  any  of  the  money  given  was  from  Ger- 
man-Americans. Secondly,  the  German-Ameri- 
cans did  not  go,  as  they  might  have  done, 
to  Germany,  through  neutral  countries,  with 
American  passports,  and  enter  the  German  army ; 
and,  thirdly,  the  most  bitter  disappointment  of 
all,  the  German-Americans  have  not  yet  risked 
their  property  and  their  necks,  their  children's 
future  and  their  own  tranquillity,  by  taking  arms 
against  the  government  of  America  in  the 
interest  of  the  Hohenzollerns. 

For  years,  a  clever  propaganda  had  been  car- 
ried on  in  America  to  make  all  Germans  there 
feel  that  they  were  Germans  of  one  united  na- 
tion, to  make  those  who  had  come  from  Hesse 
and  Bavaria,  or  Saxony  and  Wiirttemberg,  for- 
get that  as  late  as  1866  these  countries  had  been 

320 


HATE 

overrun  and  conquered  by  Prussian  militarism. 

When  Prince  Henry,  the  Kaiser's  brother, 
visited  America,  he  spent  most  of  his  time  with 
German-Americans  and  German-American  so- 
cieties in  order  to  assist  this  propaganda. 

Even  in  peace  time,  the  German- American  who 
returns  to  the  village  in  which  he  lived  as  a  boy 
and  who  walks  down  the  village  street  exploiting 
himself  and  his  property,  does  not  help  good  re- 
lations between  the  two  countries.  Envy  is  the 
mother  of  hate  and  the  envied  and  returned  Ger- 
man-American receives  only  a  lip  welcome  in  the 
village  of  his  ancestors. 

Caricatures  of  Uncle  Sam  and  of  President 
Wilson  were  published  in  all  German  papers.  A 
caricature  representing  our  President  releasing 
the  dove  of  peace  with  one  hand  while  he  poured 
out  munitions  for  the  Allies  with  the  other  was 
the  least  unpleasant. 

As  I  have  said,  from  the  tenth  of  August,  1914, 
to  the  twenty-fifth  of  September,  1915,  the  Em- 
peror continually  refused  to  receive  me  on  the 
ground  that  he  would  not  receive  the  Ambassa- 
dor of  a  country  which  furnished  munitions  to 
the  enemies  of  Germany ;  and  we  were  thoroughly 
black-listed  by  all  the  German  royalties.  I  did 
not  see  one,  however  humble,  after  the  outbreak 
of  the  war,  with  the  exception  of  Prince  Max 
of  Baden,  who  had  to  do  with  prisoners  of  war 

321 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

in  Germany  and  in  other  countries.  On  one  oc- 
casion I  sent  one  of  my  secretaries  to  the  palace 
of  Princess  August  Wilhelm,  wife  of  one  of  the 
Kaiser's  sons,  with  a  contribution  of  money  for 
her  hospital,  she  having  announced  that  she 
would  personally  receive  contributions  on  that 
day.  She  took  the  money  from  the  secretary  and 
spoke  bitterly  against  America  on  account  of  the 
shipment  of  arms. 

Even  some  boxes  of  cigarettes  we  sent  another 
royalty  at  the  front  at  Christmas  time,  1914, 
were  not  acknowledged. 

Dr.  Jacobs,  who  was  the  correspondent  in  Ber- 
lin of  Musical  America,  and  who  remained  there 
until  about  the  twenty-sixth  of  April,  1917,  was 
called  on  about  the  sixteenth  of  April,  1917,  to 
the  Kommandantur  and  subjected  to  a  cross- 
examination.  During  this  cross-examination  he 
was  asked  if  he  knew  about  the  "League  of 
Truth,"  and  why  he  did  not  join  that  organisa- 
tion. Whether  it  was  a  result  of  his  non-joining 
or  not,  I  do  not  know,  but  during  the  remainder 
of  his  stay  in  Berlin  he  was  compelled  to  report 
twice  a  day  to  the  police  and  was  not  allowed 
to  leave  his  house  after  eight  o'clock  in  the  even- 
ing. The  question,  however,  put  to  him  shows 
the  direct  interest  that  the  German  authorities 
took  in  the  existence  of  this  malodorous  organisa- 
tion. 

322 


HATE 

It  appears  in  some  of  the  circulars  issued  by 
the  League  of  Truth  that  I  was  accused  of  giv- 
ing American  passports  to  Englishmen  in  order 
to  enable  them  to  leave  the  country. 

After  I  left  Germany  there  was  an  interpella- 
tion in  the  Reichstag  about  this,  and  Zimmer- 
mann  was  asked  about  the  charge  which  he  said 
he  had  investigated  and  found  untrue. 

In  another  chapter  I  have  spoken  of  the  sub- 
ject of  the  selling  of  arms  and  supplies  by  Amer- 
ica to  the  Allies.  No  German  ever  forgets  this. 
The  question  of  legality  or  treaties  never  enters 
his  mind :  he  only  knows  that  American  supplies 
and  munitions  killed  his  brother,  son  or  father. 
It  is  a  hate  we  must  meet  for  long  years. 


323 


CHAPTER  XVII 
DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS  (Continued) 

A  FEW  days  after  the  events  narrated  in 
Chapter  XII,  von  Jagow  called  to  see  me 
at  the  Embassy  and  invited  me  to  visit  the  Em- 
peror at  the  Great  General  Headquarters;  but 
he  did  not  state  why  I  was  asked,  and  I  do 
not  know  to  this  day  whether  the  Chancel- 
lor and  those  surrounding  the  Emperor  had 
determined  on  a  temporary  settlement  of  the 
submarine  question  with  the  United  States  and 
wished  to  put  that  settlement  out,  as  it  were, 
under  the  protection  of  the  Emperor,  or  whether 
the  Emperor  was  undecided  and  those  in  favour 
of  peace  wished  me  to  present  to  him  the  Amer- 
ican side  of  the  question.  I  incline  to  the  latter 
view.  Von  Jagow  informed  me  that  an  officer 
from  the  Foreign  Office  would  accompany  me  and 
that  I  should  be  allowed  to  take  a  secretary  and 
the  huntsman  (Leib jaeger) ,  without  whom  no 
Ambassador  ever  travels  in  Germany. 

Mr.  Grew,  our  counsellor,  was  very  anxious 
to  go  and  I  felt  on  account  of  his  excellent  work, 

324 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

as  well  as  his  seniority,  that  he  was  entitled  to 
be  chosen.  Lieutenant  von  Prittwitz,  who  was 
attached  to  the  Foreign  Office  as  a  sort  of  special 
aide  to  von  Jagow,  was  detailed  to  accompany  us. 
We  were  given  a  special  salon  car  and  left  on  the 
evening  of  Friday,  April  twenty-eighth.  As  we 
neared  the  front  by  way  of  the  line  running 
through  Saar  Brucken,  our  train  was  often  halted 
because  of  long  trains  of  hospital  cars  on  their 
way  from  the  front  to  the  base  hospitals  in  the 
rear ;  and  as  we  entered  France  there  were  many 
evidences  of  the  obstinate  fights  which  had  raged 
in  this  part  of  the  country  in  August,  1914. 
Parts  of  the  towns  and  villages  which  we  passed 
were  in  ruins,  and  rough  trench  lines  were  to  be 
discerned  on  some  of  the  hillsides.  At  the  sta- 
tions, weeping  French  women  dressed  in  black 
were  not  uncommon  sights,  having  just  heard 
perhaps  of  the  death,  months  before,  of  a  hus- 
band, sweetheart  or  son  who  had  been  mobilised 
with  the  French  army. 

The  fortress  city  of  Metz  through  which  we 
passed  seemed  to  be  as  animated  as  a  beehive. 
Trains  were  continuously  passing.  Artillery  was 
to  be  seen  on  the  roads  and  automobiles  were  hur- 
rying to  and  fro. 

The  Great  General  Headquarters  of  the  Kaiser 
for  the  Western  Front  is  in  the  town  of  Charle- 
ville-Mezieres,  situated  on  the  Meuse  in  the  De- 

325 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

partment  of  the  Ardennes,  which  Department  at 
that  time  was  the  only  French  Department  wholly 
in  the  possession  of  the  Germans.  We  were  re- 
ceived at  the  railway  station  by  several  officers 
and  escorted  in  one  of  the  Kaiser's  automobiles, 
which  had  been  set  apart  for  my  use,  to  a  villa 
in  the  town  of  Charleville,  owned  by  a  French 
manufacturer  named  Perin.  This  pretty  little 
red  brick  villa  had  been  christened  by  the  Ger- 
mans, "Sachsen  Villa,"  because  it  had  been  occu- 
pied by  the  King  of  Saxony  when  he  had  visited 
the  Kaiser.  A  French  family  servant  and  an  old 
gardener  had  been  left  in  the  villa,  but  for  the 
few  meals  which  we  took  there  two  of  the  Em- 
peror's body  huntsmen  had  been  assigned,  and 
they  brought  with  them  some  of  the  Emperor's 
silver  and  china. 

The  Emperor  had  been  occupying  a  large  villa 
in  the  town  of  Charleville  until  a  few  davs  before 

»/ 

our  arrival.  After  the  engineer  of  his  private 
train  had  been  killed  in  the  railway  station  by  a 
bomb  dropped  from  a  French  aeroplane,  and 
after  another  bomb  had  dropped  within  a  hun- 
dred yards  of  the  villa  occupied  by  the  Kaiser, 
he  moved  to  a  red  brick  chateau  situated  on  a 
hill  outside  of  Charleville,  known  as  either  the 
Chateau  Bellevue  or  Bellaire. 

Nearly  every  day  during  our  stay,  we  lunched 
and  dined  with  the  Chancellor  in  the  villa  of  a 

326 


French  banker,  which  he  occupied.  About  ten 
people  were  present  at  these  dinners,  the  Chan- 
cellor's son-in-law,  Zech,  Prittwitz,  two  experts 
in  international  law,  both  attached  to  the  For- 
eign Office,  and,  at  two  dinners,  von  Treutler,  the 
Prussian  Minister  to  Bavaria,  who  had  been 
assigned  to  represent  the  Foreign  Office  near  the 
person  of  the  Kaiser  and  Helfferich  who,  towards 
the  end  of  our  stay,  had  been  summoned  from 
Berlin. 

I  had  been  working  hard  at  German  and  as 
the  Chancellor  does  not  like  to  talk  English  and 
as  some  of  these  persons  did  not  speak  that  lan- 
guage we  tried  to  carry  on  the  table  conversation 
in  German,  but  I  know  that  when  I  tried  to  ex- 
plain, in  German,  to  Helfferich  the  various  tax 
systems  of  America,  I  swam  out  far  beyond  my 
linguistic  depth. 

During  our  stay  here  I  received  cables  from 
the  Department  of  State  which  were  transmitted 
from  Berlin  in  cipher,  and  which  Grew  was  able 
to  decipher  as  he  had  brought  a  code  book  with 
him.  In  one  of  these  it  was  expressly  intimated 
that  in  any  settlement  of  the  submarine  contro- 
versy America  would  make  no  distinction  be- 
tween armed  and  unarmed  merchant  ships. 

We  formed  for  a  while  quite  a  happy  family. 
The  French  owners  of  the  villa  seemed  to 
have  had  a  fondness  for  mechanical  toys.  After 

327 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

dinner  every  night  these  toys  were  set  going, 
much  to  the  amusement  of  the  Chancellor.  One 
of  these  toys,  about  two  feet  high,  was  a  Hoochi- 
Koochi  dancer  and  another  successful  one  was  a 
clown  and  a  trained  pig,  both  climbing  a  step 
ladder  and  performing  marvellous  feats  thereon. 
Grew,  who  is  an  excellent  musician,  played  the 
piano  for  the  Chancellor  and  at  his  special  request 
played  pieces  by  Bach,  the  favourite  composer  of 
the  Chancellor's  deceased  wife.  One  day  we  had 
tea  in  the  garden  of  the  villa  formerly  occupied 
by  the  Emperor,  with  the  Prince  of  Pless  (who  is 
always  with  the  Kaiser,  and  who  seemed  to  be  a 
prime  favourite  with  him),  von  Treutler  and 
others,  and  motored  with  Prince  Pless  to  see 
some  marvellous  Himalayan  pheasants  reared  by 
an  old  Frenchman,  an  ex-jailer,  who  seemed  to 
have  a  strong  instinct  to  keep  something  in  cap- 
tivity. 

The  Kaiser's  automobile,  which  he  had  placed 
at  my  disposal,  had  two  loaded  rifles  standing  up- 
right in  racks  at  the  right  and  left  sides  of  the 
car,  ready  for  instant  use.  On  one  day  we  mo- 
tored, always,  of  course,  in  charge  of  the  officers 
detailed  to  take  care  of  us,  to  the  ancient  walled 
city  of  Rocroy  and  through  the  beautiful  part 
of  the  Ardennes  forest  lying  to  the  east  of  it, 
returning  to  Charleville  along  the  heights  above 
the  valley  of  the  Meuse. 

328 


AMBASSADOR    GERARD    AND    HIS    PARTY    IN    SEDAN 


WITH  GERMAN  OFFICERS  AND  MEMBERS  OF  THE  FRENCH  FOOD  COMMISSION 
BEFORE  THE  COTTAGE  AT  BAZEILLES,  WHERE  NAPOLEON  III  AND  BISMARCK  MET 
AFTER  THE  BATTLE  OF  SEDAN 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

The  feeding  of  the  French  population,  which 
is  carried  on  by  the  American  Relief  Commis- 
sion, was  a  very  interesting  thing  to  see  and,  in 
company  with  one  of  the  members  of  the  French 
committee,  we  saw  the  workings  of  this  system  of 
American  Relief.  We  first  visited  a  storehouse 
in  Charleville,  the  headquarters  for  the  relief  dis- 
trict of  which  Charleville  may  be  called  the 
capital. 

For  relief  purposes  Northern  France  is  divided 
into  six  districts.  From  the  central  distribution 
point  in  each  district,  food  is  sent  to  the  commune 
within  the  district,  the  commune  being  the  ulti- 
mate unit  of  distribution  and  each  commune  con- 
taining on  the  average  about  five  hundred  souls. 
We  then  motored  to  one  of  the  communes  where 
the  distribution  of  food  for  the  week  was  to  take 
place  that  afternoon.  Here  in  a  factory,  closed 
since  the  war,  the  people  of  the  commune  were 
lined  up  with  their  baskets  waiting  for  their 
share  of  the  rations.  On  entering  a  large  room 
of  the  factory,  each  stopped  first  at  a  desk  and 
there  either  paid  in  cash  for  the  week's  allowance 
of  rations  or  signed  an  agreement  to  pay  at  some 
future  date.  The  individuals  who  had  no  pros- 
pect of  being  able  to  pay  received  the  rations  for 
nothing.  About  one-third  were  in  each  class. 
The  money  used  was  not  always  French,  or  real 
money,  but  was,  as  a  rule,  the  paper  money  issued 

329 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

in  that  part  of  Northern  France  by  each  town  and 
redeemable  after  the  war. 

Signs  were  hung  up  showing  the  quantity  that 
each  person  was  entitled  to  receive  for  the  next 
fifteen  days  and  the  sale  price  per  kilo  to  each 
inhabitant.  For  instance,  in  this  particular 
period  for  the  first  fifteen  days  of  the  month  of 
May,  1916,  each  inhabitant  could,  in  this  district, 
receive  the  following  allowances  at  the  following 
rates : 

ARTICLE  AMOUNT   PER    HEAD  PRICE 

Flour  4  K.  500      The  Kilogram      o  fr.  48 

Rice  K.  500  o  fr.  55 

Beans  K.  500  o  fr.  90 

Bacon  K.  500  2  fr.  80 

Lard  K.  250  2  fr.  30 

Green  Coffee  K.  250  I  fr.  70 

Crystallized  Sugar  K.  150  o  fr.  90 

Salt  K.  200  o  fr.  10 

Soap  (hard)  K.  250  I  fr.  oo 

In  addition  to  these  articles  each  inhabitant  of 
the  commune  which  we  visited,  also  received  on 
the  day  of  our  visit  a  small  quantity  of  carrot 
seed  to  plant  in  the  small  plot  of  ground  which 
each  was  permitted  to  retain  out  of  his  own  land 
by  the  German  authorities. 

The  unfortunate  people  who  received  this  al- 
lowance looked  very  poor  and  very  hungry  and 
very  miserable.  Many  of  them  spoke  to  me,  not 

330 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

only  here  but  also  in  Charleville,  and  expressed 
their  great  gratitude  to  the  American  people  for 
what  was  being  done  for  them.  Those  in  Charle- 
ville said  that  they  had  heard  that  I  was  in  their 
town  because  of  trouble  pending  between  Amer- 
ica and  Germany.  They  said  they  hoped  that 
there  would  be  no  war  between  the  two  coun- 
tries because  if  war  came  they  did  not  know 
what  would  become  of  them  and  that,  in  the  con- 
fusion of  war,  they  wrould  surely  be  left  to  starve. 

In  Charleville  notices  were  posted  directing  the 
inhabitants  not  to  go  out  on  the  streets  after,  I 
think,  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  also  no- 
tices informing  the  population  that  they  would  be 
allowed  a  small  quantity  of  their  own  land  for 
the  purpose  of  growing  potatoes. 

After  visiting  the  factory  building  where  the 
distribution  of  rations  was  taking  place,  we 
motored  to  Sedan,  stopping  on  the  way  at  the 
hamlet  of  Bazeilles,  and  visiting  the  cottage 
where  Bismarck  and  Emperor  Napoleon  the 
Third  had  their  historic  interview  after  the  battle 
of  Sedan. 

The  old  lady  who  owns  this  house  received  us 
and  showed  us  bullet  marks  made  on  her  house 
in  the  war  of  1870,  as  well  as  in  the  present  war. 
She  apologised  because  she  had  had  the  window- 
pane,  broken  by  a  rifle  shot  in  this  war,  replaced 
on  account  of  the  cold.  As  a  girl,  she  had  re- 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

ceived  Bismarck  and  Napoleon  and  had  shown 
them,  to  the  room  upstairs  where  they  had  held 
their  consultation.  I  asked  her  which  chair  in 
this  room  Bismarck  had  sat  in,  and  sat  in  it  my- 
self, for  luck.  I  also  contributed  to  the  collection 
of  gold  pieces  given  to  her  by  those  who  had 
visited  her  cottage. 

In  Sedan  we  visited  an  old  mill  where  stores  of 
the  relief  commission  were  kept,  and  in  the 
mayor's  office  \vere  present  at  a  sort  of  consulta- 
tion between  the  Prussian  officers  and  members 
of  the  French  Committee  of  Sedan  in  which  cer- 
tain details  relative  to  the  feeding  of  the  popula- 
tion were  discussed. 

The  relief  work  is  not,  of  course,  carried  on 
right  up  to  the  battle  line  but  we  visited  a  small 
village  not  many  kilometres  in  the  rear  of  the 
German  line.  In  this  village  we  were,  as  before, 
shown  the  stores  kept  for  distribution  by  the  re- 
lief commission.  As  there  were  many  soldiers  in 
this  village  I  said  I  thought  that  these  soldiers 
must  have  stores  of  their  own  but,  in  order  to 
be  sure  that  they  were  not  living  on  the  supplies 
of  the  relief  commission,  I  thought  it  only  fair 
that  I  should  see  where  the  soldiers'  stores  were 
kept.  I  was  taken  across  the  railroad  track  to 
where  their  stores  were  kept  and,  judging  from 
the  labels  on  the  barrels  and  boxes,  I  should  say 

332 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

that  a  great  many  of  these  stores  had  come  from 
Holland. 

During  this  trip  about  the  country,  I  saw  a 
number  of  women  and  girls  working,  or  attempt- 
ing to  work,  in  the  fields.  Their  appearance  was 
so  different  from  that  of  the  usual  peasant  that 
I  spoke  to  the  accompanying  officers  about  it.  I 
was  told,  however,  that  these  were  the  peasants 
of  the  locality  who  dressed  unusually  well  in  that 
part  of  France.  Later  on  in  Charleville,  at  the 
lodging  of  an  officer  and  with  Count  Wengersky, 
who  was  detailed  to  act  as  sort  of  interpreter 
and  guide  to  the  American  Relief  Commission 
workers,  I  met  the  members  of  the  American  Re- 
lief Commission  who  were  working  in  Northern 
France  and  who  had  been  brought  on  a  special 
train  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  me  to  Charleville. 
This  Count  Wengersky  spoke  English  well.  Hav- 
ing been  for  a  number  of  years  agent  of  the 
Hamburg  American  Line  in  London,  he  was 
used  to  dealing  with  Americans  and  was  pos- 
sessed of  more  tact  than  usually  falls  to  the  lot 
of  the  average  Prussian  officer.  We  had  tea 
and  cakes  in  these  lodgings,  and  then  some  of 
the  Americans  drew  me  aside  and  told  me  the 
secret  of  the  peculiar  looking  peasants  whom  I 
had  seen  at  work  in  the  fields  surrounding 
Charleville. 

It  seems  that  the  Germans  had  endeavoured  to 
333 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

get  volunteers  from  the  great  industrial  towns 
of  Lille,  Roubeix  and  Tourcoing  to  work  these 
fields;  that  after  the  posting  of  the  notices  calling 
for  volunteers  only  fourteen  had  appeared.  The 
Germans  then  gave  orders  to  seize  a  certain  num- 
ber of  inhabitants  and  send  them  out  to  farms 
in  the  outlying  districts  to  engage  in  agricultural 
work.  The  Americans  told  me  that  this  order 
was  carried  out  with  the  greatest  barbarity ;  that 
a  man  would  come  home  at  night  and  find  that 
his  wife  or  children  had  disappeared  and  no  one 
could  tell  him  where  they  had  gone  except  that 
the  neighbours  would  relate  that  the  German  non- 
commissioned officers  and  a  file  of  soldiers  had 
carried  them  off.  For  instance,  in  a  house  of  a 
well-to-do  merchant  who  had  perhaps  two  daugh- 
ters of  fifteen  and  seventeen,  and  a  man  servant, 
the  two  daughters  and  the  servant  would  be 
seized  and  sent  off  together  to  work  for  the  Ger- 
mans in  some  little  farm  house  whose  location 
was  not  disclosed  to  the  parents.  The  Americans 
told  me  that  this  sort  of  thing  was  causing  such 
indignation  among  the  population  of  these  towns 
that  they  feared  a  great  uprising  and  a  conse- 
quent slaughter  and  burning  by  the  Germans. 

That  night  at  dinner  I  spoke  to  the  Chancellor 
about  this  and  told  him  that  it  seemed  to  me  ab- 
solutely outrageous ;  and  that,  without  consulting 
with  my  government,  I  was  prepared  to  protest 

334 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

in  the  name  of  humanity  against  a  continuance 
of  this  treatment  of  the  civil  population  of  occu- 
pied France.  The  Chancellor  told  me  that  he 
had  not  known  of  it,  that  it  was  the  result  of  or- 
ders given  by  the  military,  that  he  would  speak 
to  the  Emperor  about  it  and  that  he  hoped  to  be 
able  to  stop  further  deportations.  I  believe  that 
they  were  stopped,  but  twenty  thousand  or 
more  who  had  been  taken  from  their  homes 
were  not  returned  until  months  afterwards. 
I  said  in  a  speech  which  I  made  in  May  on 
my  return  to  America  that  it  required  the  joint 
efforts  of  the  Pope,  the  King  of  Spain  and  our 
President  to  cause  the  return  of  these  people  to 
their  homes;  and  I  then  saw  that  some  German 
press  agency  had  come  out  with  an  article  that 
I  had  made  false  statements  about  this  matter 
because  these  people  were  not  returned  to  their 
homes  as  a  result  of  the  representations  of  the 
Pope,  the  King  of  Spain  and  our  President,  but 
were  sent  back  because  the  Germans  had  no  fur- 
ther use  for  them.  It  seems  to  me  that  this  denial 
makes  the  case  rather  worse  than  before. 

At  the  Chancellor's  house  in  the  evenings  we 
had  discussions  on  the  submarine  situation  and 
I  had  several  long  talks  with  the  Chancellor 
alone  in  a  corner  of  the  room  while  the  others 
listened  to  music  or  set  the  mechanical  toys  in 
motion.  These  discussions,  without  doubt,  were 

335 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

reported  to  the  Emperor  either  by  the  Chancellor 
or  by  von  Treutler  who  at  that  time  was  high  in 
favor  with  his  Majesty. 

I  remember  on  one  evening  I  was  asked  the 
question  as  to  what  America  could  do,  supposing 
the  almost  impossible,  that  America  should  re- 
sent the  recommencement  of  ruthless  submarine 
warfare  by  the  Germans  and  declare  war.  I  said 
that  nearly  all  of  the  great  inventions  used  in  this 
war  had  been  made  by  Americans ;  that  the  very 
submarine  which  formed  the  basis  of  our  discus- 
sion was  an  American  invention,  and  so  were  the 
barbed  wire  and  the  aeroplane,  the  ironclad,  the 
telephone  and  the  telegraph,  so  necessary  to 
trench  warfare;  that  even  that  method  of  war- 
fare had  been  first  developed  on  something  of 
the  present  scale  in  our  Civil  War;  and  that  I 
believed  that,  if  forced  to  it,  American  genius 
could  produce  some  invention  which  might  have 
a  decisive  effect  in  this  war.  My  German  audi- 
tors seemed  inclined  to  believe  that  there  was 
something  in  my  contentions.  But  they  said, 
"While  possibly  you  might  invent  something  in 
America,  while  possibly  you  will  furnish  money 
and  supplies  to  the  Allies,  you  have  no  men ;  and 
the  public  sentiment  of  your  country  is  such  that 
you  will  not  be  able  to  raise  an  army  large  enough 
to  make  any  impression."  I  said  that  possibly  if 
hostilities  once  broke  out  with  the  Germans,  the 

336 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

Germans  might  force  us  by  the  commission  of 
such  acts  as  had  aroused  England,  to  pass  a  law 
for  universal  military  service.  This  proposi- 
tion of  mine  was  branded  by  the  Germans  as  ab- 
solutely impossible;  and,  therefore,  I  am  sure  that 
the  adoption  by  the  United  States  of  universal 
service  in  the  first  round  of  the  war  struck  a 
very  severe  blow  at  the  morale  of  Germany. 

The  Chancellor  always  desired  to  make  any 
settlement  of  the  submarine  question  contingent 
upon  our  doing  something  against  England;  but 
I  again  and  again  insisted  that  we  could  not  agree 
to  do  anything  against  some  other  power  as  a 
condition  of  obtaining  a  recognition  of  our  rights 
from  the  German  Empire. 

During  my  stay  at  the  General  Headquarters, 
General  Falkenhayn,  although  he  was  there  at 
the  time,  carefully  avoided  me,  which  I  took  to 
be  a  sign  that  he  was  in  favour  of  war  with 
America.  In  fact,  I  heard  afterwards  that  he  had 
insisted  on  giving  his  views  on  the  subject,  but 
that  a  very  high  authority  had  told  him  to  con- 
fine himself  to  military  operations. 

After  we  had  been  a  day  or  so  at  Charleville, 
the  Vice-Chancellor,  Helfferich,  arrived.  I  have 
always  believed  that  he  was  sent  for  to  add  his 
weight  to  the  arguments  in  favour  of  peace  and 
to  point  out  that  it  was  necessary  for  Germany 
to  have  the  friendship  of  America  after,  the  war, 

337 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

so  as  to  have  markets  where  she  could  place  her 
goods.  And  I  am  convinced  that  at  this  time,  at 
any  rate,  the  influence  of  Helfferich  was  cast  in 
the  scale  in  favour  of  peace. 

Finally,  I  was  told  that  on  the  next  day,  which 
was  Monday,  May  first,  I  was  to  lunch  with  the 
Emperor.  Grew  was  invited  to  accompany  me, 
and  the  Chancellor  said  that  he  would  call  for 
me  about  an  hour  before  the  time  set  for  lunch 
as  the  Emperor  desired  to  have  a  talk  with  me 
before  lunch.  In  the  afternoon  an  extract  from 
the  log  of  a  German  submarine  commander  was 
sent  to  me  in  which  the  submarine  commander 
had  stated  that  he  had  sighted  a  vessel  which  he 
could  easily  have  torpedoed,  but  as  the  vessel 
was  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  from  land,  he 
had  not  done  so  because  the  crew  might  not  be 
able  from  that  distance  to  reach  a  harbour.  When 
the  Chancellor  called  for  me  the  following  morn- 
ing, he  asked  me  if  I  had  read  this  extract  from 
the  submarine  officer's  log,  and  noted  how  he  had 
refrained  from  torpedoing  a  boat  one  hundred 
and  twenty  miles  from  land.  I  told  the  Chancel- 
lor that  I  had  read  the  extract,  but  that  I  had 
also  read  in  the  newspaper  that  very  morning 
that  a  ship  had  been  torpedoed  in  stormy  weather 
at  exactly  the  same  distance  from  land  and  the 
crew  compelled  to  seek  safety  in  the  ship's  boats; 
that,  anyway,  "one  swallow  did  not  make  a  sum- 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

mer,"  and  that  reports  were  continually  being 
received  of  boats  being  torpedoed  at  great  dis- 
tances from  land. 

We  then  got  in  the  motor  and  motored  to  the 
chateau  about  a  mile  off,  where  the  Kaiser  re- 
sided. We  got  out  of  the  motor  before  going 
into  the  courtyard  of  the  chateau,  and  immedi- 
ately I  was  taken  by  the  Chancellor  into  a  garden 
on  the  gently  sloping  hillside  below  the  chateau. 
Here  the  Emperor,  dressed  in  uniform,  was 
walking. 

As  I  drew  near  the  Emperor,  he  said  immedi- 
ately, "Do  you  come  like  the  great  pro-consul 
bearing  peace  or  war  in  either  hand  ?"  By  this  he 
referred,  of  course,  to  the  episode  in  which  Quin- 
tus  Fabius  Maximus,  chief  of  the  Roman  envoys 
sent  to  Hannibal  in  the  Second  Punic  War, 
doubled  his  toga  in  his  hand,  held  it  up  and  said : 
"In  this  fold  I  carry  peace  and  war :  choose  which 
you  will  have."  "Give  us  which  you  prefer," 
was  the  reply.  "Then  take  war,"  answered  the 
Roman,  letting  the  toga  fall.  "We  accept  the 
gift,"  cried  the  Carthaginian  Senator,  "and  wel- 
come." 

I  said,  "No,  your  Majesty,  only  hoping  that 
the  differences  between  two  friendly  nations 
may  be  adjusted."  The  Emperor  then  spoke  of 
what  he  termed  the  uncourteous  tone  of  our 
notes,  saying  that  we  charged  the  Germans  with 

339 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

barbarism  in  warfare  and  that,  as  Emperor  and 
head  of  the  Church,  he  had  wished  to  carry  on 
the  war  in  a  knightly  manner.  He  referred  to 
his  own  speech  to  the  members  of  the  Reichstag 
at  the  commencement  of  the  war  and  said  that 
the  nations  opposed  to  Germany  had  used  unfair 
methods  and  means,  that  the  French  especially 
were  not  like  the  French  of  '70,  but  that  their 
officers,  instead  of  being  nobles,  came  from  no 
one  knew  where.  He  then  referred  to  the  efforts 
to  starve  out  Germany  and  keep  out  milk  and  said 
that  before  he  would  allow  his  family  and  grand- 
children to  starve  he  would  blow  up  Windsor 
Castle  and  the  whole  Royal  family  of  England. 
We  then  had  a  long  discussion  in  detail  of  the 
whole  submarine  question,  in  the  course  of  which 
the  Emperor  said  that  the  submarine  had  come 
to  stay,  that  it  was  a  weapon  recognised  by  all 
countries,  and  that  he  had  seen  a  picture  of  a 
proposed  giant  submarine  in  an  American  paper, 
the  Scientific  American.  He  stated  that,  any- 
way, there  was  no  longer  any  international  law. 
To  this  last  statement  the  Chancellor  agreed. 
He  further  said  that  a  person  on  an  enemy  mer- 
chant ship  was  like  a  man  travelling  on  a  cart 
behind  the  battle  lines — he  had  no  just  cause  of 
complaint  if  injured.  He  asked  me  why  we  had 
done  nothing  to  England  because  of  her  alleged 

340 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

violations  of  international  law- — why  we  had  not 
broken  the  British  blockade. 

In  addition  to  the  technical  arguments  based 
on  international  law,  I  answered  that  no  note  of 
the  United  States  had  made  any  general  charge 
of  barbarism  against  Germany;  that  we  com- 
plained of  the  manner  of  the  use  of  submarines 
and  nothing  more;  that  we  could  never  promise 
to  do  anything  to  England  or  to  any  other  country 
in  return  for  a  promise  from  Germany  or  any 
third  country  to  keep  the  rules  of  international 
law  and  respect  the  rights  and  lives  of  our  citi- 
zens; that  we  were  only  demanding  our  rights 
under  the  recognised  rules  of  international  law 
and  it  was  for  us  to  decide  which  rights  we  would 
enforce  first;  that,  as  I  had  already  told  the 
Chancellor,  if  two  men  entered  my  grounds  and 
one  stepped  on  my  flowerbeds  and  the  other  killed 
my  sister,  I  should  probably  first  pursue  the  mur- 
derer of  my  sister;  that  those  travelling  on  the 
seas  in  enemy  merchant  ships  were  in  a  differ- 
ent position  from  those  travelling  in  a  cart  be- 
hind the  enemy's  battle  lines  on  land  because  the 
land  travellers  were  on  enemy's  territory,  while 
those  on  the  sea  were  on  territory  which,  beyond 
the  three-mile  limit,  was  free  and  in  no  sense 
enemy's  territory.  We  also  discussed  the  position 
taken  by  the  German  Government  in  one  of  the 
Frye  Notes,  in  which  the  German  expert  had 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

taken  the  position  that  a  cargo  of  food  destined 
for  an  armed  enemy  port  was  presumed  to  be  for 
the  armies  of  the  enemy,  and  therefore  contra- 
band. The  Emperor  spoke  of  the  case  of  the 
Dacia  with  some  bitterness,  but  when  I  went  into 
an  explanation  the  Chancellor  joined  in  the  con- 
versation and  said  that  our  position  was  undoubt- 
edly correct.  I  said  that  it  was  not  our  business 
to  break  the  blockade — that  there  were  plenty  of 
German  agents  in  the  United  States  who  could 
send  food  ships  and  test  the  question;  that  one 
ship  I  knew  of,  the  Wilhelmina,  laden  with  food, 
had  been  seized  by  the  British,  who  then  com- 
promised with  the  owners,  paying  them,  I  be- 
lieved, a  large  sum  for  the  disputed  cargo.  And 
in  taking  up  the  doctrine  of  ultimate  destination 
of  goods,  i.e.,  goods  sent  to  a  neutral  country 
but  really  destined  for  a  belligerent,  I  said  I 
thought  that  during  our  Civil  War  we  had  taken 
against  England  exactly  the  same  stand  which 
England  now  took ;  and  I  said  I  thought  that  one 
of  the  decisions  of  our  Supreme  Court  was  based 
on  a  shipment  to  Matamoras,  Mexico,  but  which 
the  Supreme  Court  had  decided  was  really  for 
the  Confederacy. 

Discussing  the  submarine  question,  the  Em- 
peror and  Chancellor  spoke  of  the  warning  given 
in  the  Lusitania  case;  and  I  said:  "If  the  Chan- 
cellor warns  me  not  to  go  out  on  the  Wilhelm- 

342 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

platz,  where  I  have  a  perfect  right  to  go,  the  fact 
that  he  gave  the  warning  does  not  justify  him  in 
killing  me  if  I  disregarded  his  warning  and  go 
where  I  have  a  right  to  go."  The  conversation 
then  became  more  general  and  we  finally  left 
the  garden  and  went  into  the  chateau,  where  the 
Emperor's  aides  and  guests  were  impatiently 
waiting  for  lunch. 

This  conversation  lasted  far  beyond  lunch  time. 
Anxious  heads  were  seen  appearing  from  the 
windows  and  terraces  of  the  chateau  to  which 
we  finally  adjourned.  I  sat  between  the  Emperor 
and  Prince  Pless.  Conversation  was  general  for 
the  most  of  the  time,  and  subjects  such  as  the 
suffragettes  and  the  peace  expedition  of  Henry 
Ford  were  amusingly  discussed. 

After  lunch,  I  again  had  a  long  talk  with  the 
Emperor  but  of  a  more  general  nature  than  the 
conversation  in  the  garden. 

That  night  about  eleven  o'clock,  after  again 
dining  with  the  Chancellor,  we  left  Charleville 
in  the  same  special  salon  car,  arriving  at  Berlin 
about  four  P.  M.  the  next  day,  where  at  the  sta- 
tion were  a  crowd  of  German  and  American 
newspaper  correspondents,  all  anxious  to  know 
what  had  happened. 

At  this  last  dinner  at  the  Chancellor's  he  took 
me  off  in  a  corner  and  said,  "As  I  understand  it, 
what  America  wants  is  cruiser  warfare  on  the 

343 


part  of  the  sumbarines."  And  I  said,  "Yes, 
that  is  it  exactly.  They  may  exercise  the  right 
of  visit  and  search,  must  not  torpedo  or  sink  ves- 
sels without  warning,  and  must  not  sink  any 
vessel  unless  the  passengers  and  crew  are  put  in 
a  place  of  safety." 

On  the  morning  of  the  third  of  May,  I  heard 
that  the  German  note  had  been  drafted,  but  that 
it  would  contain  a  clause  to  the  effect  that  while 
the  German  submarines  would  not  go  beyond 
cruiser  warfare,  this  rule,  nevertheless,  would 
not  apply  to  armed  merchantmen. 

As  such  a  proposition  as  this  would,  of  course, 
only  bring  up  the  subject  again,  I  immediately 
ordered  my  automobile  and  called  on  the  Span- 
ish Ambassador,  stating  to  him  what  I  had  heard 
about  the  contents  of  the  note;  that  this  would 
mean,  without  doubt,  a  break  with  America ;  and 
that,  as  I  had  been  instructed  to  hand  the  Em- 
bassy over  to  him,  I  had  come  to  tell  him  of  that 
fact.  I  gave  the  same  information  to  other  col- 
leagues, of  course  hoping  that  what  I  said  would 
directly  or  indirectly  reach  the  ears  of  the  Ger- 
man Foreign  Office.  Whether  it  did  or  not,  I 
do  not  know,  but  the  Sussex  Note  when  received 
did  not  contain  any  exception  with  reference  to 
armed  merchantmen. 

With  the  receipt  of  the  Sussex  Note  and  the 
President's  answer  thereto,  which  declined  as- 

344 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

sent  to  the  claim  of  Germany  to  define  its  attitude 
toward  our  rights  in  accordance  with  what  we 
might  do  in  regard  to  the  enforcement  of  our 
rights  against  England,  the  submarine  question 
seemed,  at  least  for  the  moment,  settled.  I,  how- 
ever, immediately  warned  the  Department  that 
I  believed  that  the  rulers  of  Germany  would  at 
some  future  date,  forced  by  public  opinion,  and 
by  the  von  Tirpitz  and  Conservative  parties,  take 
up  ruthless  submarine  war  again,  possibly  in 
the  autumn  but  at  any  rate  about  February  or 
March,  1917. 

In  my  last  conversation  with  the  Chancellor 
before  leaving  the  Great  General  Headquarters, 
when  he  referred  to  the  cruiser  warfare  of  the 
submarines,  he  also  said,  "I  hope  now  that  if  we 
settle  this  matter  your  President  will  be  great 
enough  to  take  up  the  question  of  peace."  It  was 
as  a  result  of  intimations  from,  government 
circles  that,  after  my  return  to  Berlin,  I  gave  an 
interview  to  a  representative  of  a  Munich  news- 
paper, expressing  my  faith  in  the  coming  of 
peace,  although  I  was  careful  to  say  that  it  might 
be  a  matter  of  months  or  even  years. 

Thereafter,  on  many  occasions  the  Chancellor 
impressed  upon  me  the  fact  that  America  must 
do  something  towards  arranging  a  peace  and  that 
if  nothing  was  done  to  this  end,  public  opinion 

345 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

in  Germany  would  undoubtedly  force  a  resump- 
tion of  a  ruthless  submarine  war. 

In  September  of  1916, 1  having  mentioned  that 
Mrs.  Gerard  was  going  to  the  United  States  on 
a  short  visit,  von  Jagow  insistently  urged  me  to 
go  also  in  order  to  make  every  effort  to  induce 
the  President  to  do  something  towards  peace; 
and,  as  a  result  of  his  urging  and  as  a  result  of 
my  own  desire  to  make  the  situation  clear  in 
America,  I  sailed  from  Copenhagen  on  the 
twenty-eighth  of  September  with  Mrs.  Gerard, 
on  the  Danish  ship,  Frederick  VIII,  bound  for 
New  York.  I  had  spent  almost  three  years  in 
Berlin,  having  been  absent  during  that  time  from 
the  city  only  five  or  six  days  at  Kiel  and  two 
week-ends  in  Silesia  in  1914,  with  two  weeks  at 
Munich  in  the  autumn,  two  days  at  Munich  and 
two  days  at  Parten-Kirchen  in  1916,  and  two 
week-ends  at  Heringsdorf,  in  the  summer  of  the 
same  year,  with  visits  to  British  prison  camps 
scattered  through  the  two  and  a  half  years  of 
war. 

On  the  Frederick  VIII  were  Messrs.  Herbert 
Swope  of  the  New  York  World  and  William  C. 
Bullitt  of  the  Philadelphia  Ledger,  who  had  been 
spending  some  time  in  Germany.  I  impressed 
upon  each  of  these  gentlemen  my  fixed  belief  that 
Germany  intended  shortly,  unless  some  definite 
move  was  made  toward  peace,  to  commence  ruth- 

346 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

less  submarine  war;  and  they  made  this  view 
clear  in  the  articles  which  they  wrote  for  their 
respective  newspapers. 

Mr.  Swope's  articles  which  appeared  in  the 
New  York  World  were  immediately  republished 
by  him  in  a  book  called  "Inside  the  German  Em- 
pire." In  Mr.  Swope's  book  on  page  ninety- four, 
he  says,  "The  campaign  for  the  ruthless  U-boat 
warfare  is  regarded  by  one  man  in  this  country 
who  speaks  with  the  highest  German  authority, 
as  being  in  the  nature  of  a  threat  intended  to 
accelerate  and  force  upon  us  a  movement  to- 
ward peace.  Ambassador  Gerard  had  his  atten- 
tion drawn  to  this  just  before  he  left  Berlin  but 
he  declined  to  accept  the  interpretation." 

On  page  eighty-eight  he  writes,  "Our  Embassy 
in  Berlin  expected  just  such  a  demonstration  as 
was  given  by  the  U-53  in  October  when  she  sank 
six  vessels  off  Nantucket,  as  a  lesson  of  what 
Germany  could  do  in  our  waters  if  war  came." 

On  page  seventy-four  he  says  further, 
"Throughout  Germany  the  objection  for  the  re- 
sumption of  ruthless  U-boat  warfare  of  the 
Lusitania  type  grows  stronger  day  by  day.  The 
Chancellor  is  holding  out  against  it,  but  how  long 
he  can  restrain  it  no  one  can  say.  I  left  Ger- 
many convinced  that  only  peace  could  prevent 
its  resumption.  And  the  same  opinion  is  held  by 
every  German  with  whom  I  spoke,  and  it  is  held 

347 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

also  by  Ambassador  Gerard.  The  possibility  was 
so  menacing  that  the  principal  cause  of  the  Am- 
bassador's return  in  October  was  that  he  might 
report  to  Washington.  The  point  was  set  out 
in  press  despatches  at  that  time." 

I  wrote  a  preface  to  Mr.  Swope's  book  for 
the  express  purpose  of  informing  the  American 
public  in  this  way  that  I  believed  that  Germany 
intended  at  an  early  date  to  resume  the  ruthless 
U-boat  warfare. 

Our  trip  home  on  the  Frederick  VIII  was  with- 
out incident  except  for  the  fact  that  on  the  ninth 
day  of  October,  Swope  came  to  the  door  of  my 
stateroom  about  twelve  o'clock  at  night  and  in- 
formed me  that  the  captain  had  told  him  to  tell 
me  that  the  wireless  had  brought  the  news  that 
German  submarines  were  operating  directly 
ahead  of  us  and  had  just  sunk  six  ships  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Xantucket.  I  imagine  that  the 
captain  slightly  changed  the  course  of  our  ship, 
but  next  day  the  odour  of  burning  oil  was  quite 
noticeable  for  hours. 

These  Danish  ships  in  making  the  trip  from 
Copenhagen  to  New  York  were  compelled  to  put 
in  at  the  port  of  Kirkwall  in  the  Orkney  Islands, 
north  of  Scotland,  where  the  ship  was  searched 
by  the  British  authorities.  On  the  occasion  of 
our  visit  to  Kirkwall,  on  this  trip,  a  Swede,  who 
had  been  so  foolish  as  to  make  a  sketch  of  the 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

harbour  and  defences  of  Kirkwall  from  the  top 
deck  of  the  Frederick  VIII,  was  taken  off  the 
boat  by  the  British.  The  British  had  very  clev- 
erly spotted  him  doing  this  from  the  shore  or  a 
neighbouring  boat,  through  a  telescope. 

Ships  can  enter  Kirkwall  only  by  daylight  and 
at  six  o'clock  every  evening  trawlers  draw  a  net 
across  the  entrance  to  the  harbour  as  a  protec- 
tion against  submarines.  A  passage  through  this 
net  is  not  opened  until  daylight  the  following 
morning. 

Captain  Thomson  of  the  Frederick  VIII,  the 
ship  which  carried  us  to  America  and  back  to 
Copenhagen,  by  his  evident  mastery  of  his  pro- 
fession gave  to  all  of  his  passengers  a  feeling  of 
confidence  on  the  somewhat  perilous  voyage  in 
those  dangerous  waters. 

When  I  reached  America,  on  October  eleventh, 
I  was  given  a  most  flattering  reception  and  the 
freedom  of  the  City  of  New  York.  Within  a  few 
days  after  my  arrival,  the  President  sent  for  me 
to  visit  him  at  Shadow  Lawn,  at  Long  Branch, 
and  I  was  with  him  for  over  four  hours  and  a 
quarter  in  our  first  conference.  I  saw  him,  of 
course,  after  the  election,  before  returning  to 
Germany,  and  in  fact  sailed  on  the  fourth  of 
December  at  his  special  request. 

Before  I  left  I  was  impressed  with  the  idea 
that  he  desired  above  all  things  both  to  keep  and 

349 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

to  make  peace.  Of  course,  this  question  of  mak- 
ing peace  is  a  very  delicate  one.  A  direct  offer 
on  our  part  might  have  subjected  us  to  the  same 
treatment  which  we  gave  Great  Britain  during 
our  Civil  War  when  Great  Britain  made  over- 
tures looking  towards  the  establishment  of  peace, 
and  the  North  answered,  practically  telling  the 
British  Government  that  it  could  attend  to  its 
own  business,  that  it  would  brook  no  interfer- 
ence and  would  regard  further  overtures  as  un- 
friendly acts. 

The  Germans  started  this  war  without  any 
consultation  with  the  United  States,  and  then 
seemed  to  think  that  they  had  a  right  to  demand 
that  the  United  States  make  peace  for  them  on 
such  terms  and  at  such  time  as  they  chose;  and 
that  the  failure  to  do  so  gave  them  a  vested  right 
to  break  all  the  laws  of  warfare  against  their 
enemies  and  to  murder  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States  on  the  high  seas,  in  violation  of  the  de- 
clared principles  of  international  law. 

Nevertheless,  I  think  that  the  inclination  of  the 
President  was  to  go  very  far  towards  the  forcing 
of  peace. 

Our  trip  from  New  York  to  Copenhagen  was 
uneventful,  cold  and  dark.  We  were  captured 
by  a  British  cruiser  west  of  the  Orkneys  and 
taken  in  for  the  usual  search  to  the  port  of  Kirk- 
wall  where  we  remained  two  days. 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

The  President  impressed  upon  me  his  great  in- 
terest in  the  Belgians  deported  to  Germany.  The 
action  of  Germany  in  thus  carrying  a  great  part 
of  the  male  population  of  Belgium  into  virtual 
slavery  had  roused  great  indignation  in  Amer- 
ica. As  the  revered  Cardinal  Farley  said  to  me 
a  few  days  before  my  departure,  "You  have  to 
go  back  to  the  times  of  the  Medes  and  the  Per- 
sians to  find  a  like  example  of  a  whole  people 
carried  into  bondage." 

Mr.  Grew  had  made  representations  about  this 
to  the  Chancellor  and,  on  my  return,  I  immedi- 
ately took  up  the  question. 

I  was  informed  that  it  was  a  military  measure, 
that  Ludendorf  had  feared  that  the  British  would 
break  through  and  overrun  Belgium  and  that 
the  military  did  not  propose  to  have  a  hostile 
population  at  their  backs  who  might  cut  the  rail 
lines  of  communication,  telephones  and  tele- 
graphs; and  that  for  this  reason  the  deportation 
had  been  decided  on.  I  was,  however,  told  that 
I  would  be  given  permission  to  visit  these  Bel- 
gians. The  passes,  nevertheless,  which  alone 
made  such  visiting  possible  were  not  delivered 
until  a  few  days  before  I  left  Germany. 

Several  of  these  Belgians  who  were  put  at 
work  in  Berlin  managed  to  get  away  and  come 
to  see  me.  They  gave  me  a  harrowing  account 
of  how  they  had  been  seized  in  Belgium  and  made 


,MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

to  work  in  Germany  at  making  munitions  to  be 
used  probably  against  their  own  friends.  I  said 
to  the  Chancellor,  "There  are  Belgians  employed 
in  making  shells  contrary  to  all  rules  of  war  and 
the  Hague  conventions."  He  said,  "I  do  not 
believe  it."  I  said,  "My  automobile  is  at  the 
door.  I  can  take  you,  in  four  minutes,  to  where 
thirty  Belgians  are  working  on  the  manufacture 
of  shells."  But  he  did  not  find  time  to  go. 

Americans  must  understand  that  the  Germans 
will  stop  at  nothing  to  win  this  war,  and  that  the 
only  thing  they  respect  is  force. 

While  I  was  in  America  von  Jagow,  as  had 
been  predicted  by  his  enemies  in  Berlin,  had  fallen 
and  Zimmermann  had  been  given  his  place. 

I  remained  a  day  in  Copenhagen,  in  order  to 
arrange  for  the  transportation  to  Germany  of 
the  three  tons  of  food  which  I  had  brought  from 
New  York,  and,  also,  in  order  to  lunch  with 
Count  Rantzau,  the  German  .Minister,  a  most 
able  diplomat. 

Therefore,  the  President's  peace  note  arrived 
in  Berlin  just  ahead  of  me  and  was  delivered 
by  Mr.  Grew  a  few  hours  before  my  arrival. 
Joseph  C.  Grew,  of  Boston,  was  next  in  command 
during  all  my  stay  in  Berlin.-  He  most  ably  car- 
ried on  the  work  of  the  Embassy  during  my  ab- 
sence on  the  trip  to  America,  in  the  autumn  of 
1916;  and  at  all  times  was  of  the  greatest  assist- 

352 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

ance  to  me.    I  hope  to  see  him  go  far  in  his  career. 

This  note  was  dated  December  eighteenth, 
1916,  and  was  addressed  by  the  Secretary  of 
State  to  the  American  Ambassadors  at  the  capi- 
tals of  the  belligerent  powers.  It  commenced  as 
follows :  "The  President  directs  me  to  send  you 
the  following  communication  to  be  presented  im- 
mediately to  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  of 
the  government  to  which  you  are  accredited. 

"The  President  of  the  United  States  has  in- 
structed me  to  suggest  to  the  (here  is  inserted 
a  designation  of  the  government  addressed)  a 
course  of  action  in  regard  to  the  present  war 
which  he  hopes  that  the  government  will  take  un- 
der consideration  as  suggested  in  the  most 
friendly  spirit,  etc." 

In  the  note  which  was  sent  to  the  Central 
Powers  it  was  stated :  "The  suggestion  which  I 
am  instructed  to  make,  the  President  has  long 
had  it  in  mind  to  offer.  He  is  somewhat  embar- 
rassed to  offer  it  at  this  particular  time  because 
it  may  now  seem  to  have  been  prompted  by  a 
desire  to  play  a  part  in  connection  with  the  re- 
cent overtures  of  the  Central  Powders." 

Of  course,  the  President  thus  referred  to  the 
address  made  by  Bethmann-Hollweg  in  the 
Reichstag  in  December,  in  which,  after  reviewing 
generally  the  military  situation,  the  Chancellor 
said:  "In  a  deep  moral  and  religious  sense  of 

353 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

duty  towards  this  nation  and  beyond  it  towards 
humanity,  the  Emperor  now  considers  that  the 
moment  has  come  for  official  action  towards 
peace.  His  Majesty,  therefore,  in  complete  har- 
mony and  in  common  with  our  Allies  decided  to 
propose  to  the  hostile  powers  to  enter  peace  nego- 
tiations." And  the  Chancellor  continued,  saying 
that  a  note  to  this  effect  had  been  transmitted 
that  morning  to  all  hostile  powers,  through  the 
representatives  of  these  powers  to  whom  the  in- 
terests and  rights  of  Germany  in  the  enemy 
States  had  been  entrusted;  and  that,  therefore, 
the  representatives  of  Spain,  the  United  States 
and  Switzerland  had  been  asked  to  forward  the 
note. 

Coincidently  with  this  speech  of  the  Chancel- 
lor's, which  was  December  twelfth,  1916,  the 
Emperor  sent  a  message  to  the  commanding  gen- 
erals reading  as  follows:  "Soldiers!  In  agree- 
ment with  the  sovereigns  of  my  Allies  and  with 
the  consciousness  of  victory,  I  have  made  an 
offer  of  peace  to  the  enemy.  Whether  it  will  be 
accepted  is  still  uncertain.  Until  that  moment 
arrives  you  will  fight  on." 

I  return  to  the  President's  note. 

The  President  suggested  that  early  occasion 
be  sought  to  call  out  from  all  the  nations  now 
at  war  an  avowal  of  their  respective  views  as  to 
the  terms  upon  which  the  war  might  be  con- 

354 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

eluded,  and  the  arrangements  which  would  be 
deemed  satisfactory  as  a  guarantee  against  its 
renewal. 

He  called  the  attention  of  the  world  to  the  fact 
that  according  to  the  statements  of  the  statesmen 
of  the  belligerent  powers,  the  objects  which  all 
sides  had  in  mind  seemed  to  be  the  same.  And 
the  President  finally  said  that  he  was  not  pro- 
posing peace,  not  even  offering  mediation;  but 
merely  proposing  that  soundings  be  taken  in  or- 
der that  all  nations  might  know  how  near  might 
be  the  haven  of  peace  for  which  all  mankind 
longed. 

Shortly  after  the  publication  of  this  note  Sec- 
retary Lansing  gave  an  interview  to  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  American  press  in  which  he 
stated  that  America  was  very  near  war.  This 
interview  he  later  explained. 

As  soon  as  possible  after  my  return  to  Berlin  I 
had  interviews  with  Zimmermann  and  the  Chan- 
cellor. Zimmermann  said  that  we  were  such  per- 
sonal friends  that  he  was  sure  we  could  con- 
tinue to  work,  as  we  had  in  the  past,  in  a  frank 
and  open  manner,  putting  all  the  cards  upon  tke 
table  and  working  together  in  the  interests  0f 
peace.  I,  of  course,  agreed  to  this  and  it  seemed, 
on  the  surface,  as  if  everything  would  go 
smoothly. 

Although  the  torpedoing  without  warning  of 
355 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

the  Marina,  while  I  was  in  the  United  States, 
had  resulted  in  the  death  of  a  number  of  Amer- 
icans on  board,  nevertheless  there  seemed  to  be 
an  inclination  on  the  part  of  the  government  and 
people  of  the  United  States  to  forget  this  inci- 
dent provided  Germany  would  continue  to  keep 
her  pledges  given  in  the  Sussex  Note.  During 
all  the  period  of  the  war  in  Germany  I  had  been 
on  good  terms  with  the  members  of  the  govern- 
ment, namely,  the  Chancellor,  von  Jagow,  Zim- 
mermann  and  the  other  officials  of  the  Foreign 
Office,  as  well  as  with  Helfferich,  Dr.  Solf,  the 
Colonial  Minister,  Kaempf,  the  President  of  the 
Reichstag  and  a  number  of  the  influential  men  of 
Germany  such  as  von  Gwinner,  of  the  Deutsche 
Bank,  Gutmann  of  the  Dresdener  Bank,  Dr. 
Walter  Rathenau,  who  for  a  long  time  was  at 
the  head  of  the  department  for  the  supply  and 
conservation  of  raw  materials,  General  von  Kes- 
sel,  Over-Commander  of  the  Mark  of  Branden- 
burg, in  spite  of  many  tiffs  with  him  over  the 
treatment  of  prisoners,  Theodor  Wolff,  editor  of 
the  Tageblatt,  Professor  Stein,  Maximilian  Har- 
den and  many  others. 

For  a  long  time  the  fight  waged  by  the  Chan- 
cellor was  America's  fight  and  a  fight  for  peace, 
so  much  so  that  the  newspapers  which  attacked 
the  Chancellor  were  the  same  ones  which  had  at- 
tacked President  Wilson,  America  and  Ameri- 

356 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

cans  in  general,  and  which  had  very  often  in- 
cluded me  in  their  attacks.  During  every  crisis 
between  America  and  Germany  I  had  acted  with 
von  Jagow  and  Zimmermann  in  a  most  confiden- 
tial way,  looking  forward  always  to  one  object, 
namely,  the  preservation  of  peace  between  our 
respective  countries.  Many  suggestions  were 
made  which,  I  think,  materially  aided  up  to  that 
time  in  the  preservation  of  peace. 

The  Chancellor  and  the  Foreign  Office,  how- 
ever, through  sheer  weakness  did  nothing  to  pre- 
vent the  insults  to  our  flag  and  President  perpe- 
trated by  the  "League  of  Truth" ;  although  both 
under  the  law  and  the  regulations  of  the  "State 
of  Siege"  this  gang  could  not  operate  without 
the  consent  of  the  authorities.  So  far  as  I  was 
concerned  personally,  a  few  extra  attacks  from 
tooth  carpenters  and  snake  dancers  meant  noth- 
ing, but  certainly  aroused  my  interest  in  the 
workings  of  the  Teutonic  official  brain. 

On  my  return  every  one  in  official  life, — the 
Chancellor,  Zimmermann,  von  Stumm  who  suc- 
ceeded Zimmermann,  von  der  Busche,  formerly 
German  Minister  in  the  Argentine,  who  had 
equal  rank  with  Stumm  in  the  Foreign  Office — 
all  without  exception  and  in  the  most  convincing 
language  assured  me  that  cases  like  that  of  the 
Marina,  for  example,  were  only  accidents  and 
that  there  was  every  desire  on  the  part  of  Ger- 

357 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

many  to  maintain  the  pledges  given  in  the  Sus- 
sex Note. 

And  the  great  question  to  be  solved  is  whether 
the  Germans  in  making  their  offers  of  peace,  in 
begging  me  to  go  to  America  to  talk  peace  to  the 
President,  were  sincerely  anxious  for  peace,  or 
were  only  making  these  general  offers  of  peace 
in  order  to  excuse  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  a  re- 
sumption of  ruthless  submarine  warfare  and  to 
win  to  their  side  public  opinion  in  the  United 
States,  in  case  such  warfare  should  be  resumed. 

Had  the  decision  rested  with  the  Chancellor 
and  with  the  Foreign  Office,  instead  of  with  the 
military,  I  am  sure  that  the  decision  would  have 
been  against  the  resumption  of  this  ruthless  war. 
But  Germany  is  not  ruled  in  war  time  by  the 
civilian  power.  Hindenburg  at  the  time  I  left 
for  America  was  at  the  head  of  the  General  Staff 
and  Ludendorf,  who  had  been  Chief  of  Staff, 
had  been  made  the  Quartermaster  General  in  or- 
der that  he  might  follow  Hindenburg  to  General 
Headquarters. 

Hindenburg,  shortly  before  his  battle  of  the 
Masurian  Lakes,  was  a  General  living  in  retire- 
ment at  Hanover.  Because  he  had  for  years 
specialised  in  the  study  of  this  region  he  was  sud- 
denly called  to  the  command  of  the  German  army 
which  was  opposing  the  Russian  invasions.  Lu- 
dendorf, who  had  been  Colonel  of  a  regiment  at 

358 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

the  attack  on  Liege,  was  sent  with  him  as  his 
Chief  of  Staff.  The  success  of  Hindenburg  in 
his  campaigns  is  too  well  known  to  require  re- 
capitulation here.  He  became  the  popular  idol 
of  Germany,  the  one  general — in  fact  the  one 
man — whom  the  people  felt  that  they  could  idol- 
ise. But  shortly  before  my  trip  to  America  an 
idea  was  creeping  through  the  mind  of  the  Ger- 
man people  leading  them  to  believe  that  Hinden- 
burg was  but  the  front,  and  that  the  brains  of  the 
combination  had  been  furnished  by  Ludendorf. 
Many  Germans  in  a  position  to  know  told  me  that 
the  real  dictator  of  Germany  was  Ludendorf. 

My  trip  to  America  was  made  principally  at 
the  instance  of  von  Jagow  and  the  Chancellor, 
and,  in  my  farewell  talk  with  the  Chancellor  a 
few  days  before  leaving,  I  asked  if  it  could  not 
be  arranged,  since  he  was  always  saying  that  the 
civilian  power  was  inferior  to  that  of  the  mili- 
tary, that  I  should  see  Hindenburg  and  Luden- 
dorf before  I  left.  This  proposed  meeting  he 
either  -could  not  or  would  not  arrange,  and 
shortly  after  my  return  I  again  asked  the  Chan- 
cellor if  I  could  not  see,  if  not  the  Emperor,  at 
least  Hindenburg  and  Ludendorf,  who  the  Chan- 
cellor himself  had  said  were  the  leaders  of  the 
military,  and,  therefore,  the  leaders  of  Germany. 
Again  I  was  put  off. 

In  the  meantime  and  in  spite  of  the  official 
359 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

assurance  given  to  me  certain  men  in  Germany, 
in  a  position  to  know,  warned  me  that  the  gov- 
ernment intended  to  resume  ruthless  submarine 
war.  Ludendorf,  they  said,  had  declared  in  fa- 
vour of  this  war  and,  according  to  them,  that 
meant  its  adoption. 

At  first  I  thought  that  Germany  would  ap- 
proach the  resumption  of  ruthless  submarine  war 
via  the  armed  merchantman  issue. 

The  case  of  the  Yarrowdale  prisoners  seemed 
to  bear  out  this  theory.  A  German  raider  cap- 
tured and  sunk  a  number  of  enemy  vessels  and 
sent  one  of  the  captured  boats,  the  Yarrowdale, 
with  a  prize  crew  to  Swinemunde.  On  board, 
held  as  prisoners,  were  a  number  of  the  crews 
of  the  captured  vessels;  and  among  those  men  I 
learned  "under  the  rose,"  were  some  Americans. 
The  arrival  of  the  Yarrowdale  was  kept  secret 
for  some  time,  but  as  soon  as  I  received  informa- 
tion of  its  arrival,  I  sent  note  after  note  to  the 
Foreign  Office  demanding  to  know  if  there  were 
any  Americans  among  the  prisoner  crews. 

For  a  long  time  I  received  no  answer,  but  fi- 
nally Germany  admitted  what  I  knew  already, 
that  Americans  taken  with  the  crews  of  cap- 
tured ships  were  being  held  as  prisoners  of  war, 
the  theory  of  the  Germans  being  that  all  employed 
on  armed  enemy  merchant  ships  were  enemy 
combatants.  I  supposed  that  possibly  Germany 

360 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

might  therefore  approach  the  submarine  contro- 
versy by  this  route  and  claim  that  armed  mer- 
chantmen were  liable  to  be  sunk  without  notice. 

Instructed  by  the  State  Department,  I  de- 
manded the  immediate  release  of  the  Yarrowdale 
prisoners.  This  was  accorded  by  Germany,  but, 
after  the  breaking  of  relations,  the  prisoners 
were  held  back;  and  it  was  not  until  after  we 
left  Germany  that  they  were  finally  released. 

I  asked  permission  to  visit  these  prisoners  and 
sent  Mr.  Ayrault  and  Mr.  Osborne  to  the  place 
where  I  knew  they  were  interned.  The  permis- 
sion to  visit  them  arrived,  but  on  the  same  day 
orders  were  given  to  remove  the  prisoners  to 
other  camps.  Mr.  Osborne  and  Mr.  Ayrault, 
however,  being  on  the  ground,  saw  the  prisoners 
before  their  removal  and  reported  on  their  con- 
ditions. 

On  January  sixth  the  American  Association 
of  Commerce  and  Trade  gave  me  a  dinner  at  the 
Hotel  Adlon.  This  was  made  the  occasion  of  a 
sort  of  German-American  love-feast.  Zimmer- 
mann,  although  he  had  to  go  early  in  the  evening 
to  meet  the  Foreign  Minister  of  Austria-Hun- 
gary, was  present;  Helfferich,  Vice-Chancellor 
and  Secretary  of  the  Interior;  Dr.  Solf,  the  Co- 
lonial Minister;  Sydow,  Minister  of  Commerce; 
Dernburg;  von  Gwinner  of  the  Deutsche  Bank; 
Gutmann  of  the  Dresdener  Bank;  Under  Secre- 

361 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

tary  von  der  Busche  of  the  Foreign  Office;  the 
Mayor  and  the  Police  President  of  Berlin;  the 
President  of  the  Berlin  Chamber  of  Commerce; 
Under  Secretary  von  Stumm  of  the  Foreign  Of- 
fice; and  many  others  of  that  office.  There  were 
present  also  Under  Secretary  Richter  of  the 
Interior  Department;  Lieutenant  Colonel  Doeu- 
telmoser  of  the  General  Staff;  the  editors  and 
proprietors  of  the  principal  newspapers  in  Ber- 
lin; Count  Montgelas,  who  had  charge  of  Ameri- 
can affairs  in  the  Foreign  Office;  naval  officers 
like  Captain  Lans ;  the  American  correspondents 
in  Germany;  and  Prince  Isenburg;  rubbing  shoul- 
ders with  the  brewers,  George  Ehret  and  Krue- 
ger,  of  New  York  and  Newark.  There  were  lit- 
erary lights  like  Ludwig  Fulda,  Captain  Persius, 
Professor  Hans  Delbriick,  Dr.  Paasche,  Vice- 
President  of  the  Reichstag,  and  many  others 
equally  celebrated  as  the  ones  that  I  have  named. 
Speeches  were  made  by  Mr.  Wolf,  President  of 
the  American  Association  of  Commerce  and 
Trade,  Helfferich,  Zimmermann,  von  Gwinner 
and  me.  A  tone  of  the  greatest  friendliness  pre- 
vailed. Zimmermann  referred  to  our  personal 
friendship  and  said  that  he  was  sure  that  we 
should  be  able  to  manage  everything  together. 
Helfferich  in  his  speech  said  that  I,  by  learn- 
ing German  and  studying  the  life  of  the  Ger- 
man people,  was  one  of  the  few  diplomats  that 

362 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

had  come  to  Germany  who  had  learned  some- 
thing of  the  real  life  and  psychology  of  the  Ger- 
mans. Von  Gwinner  made  a  speech  in  English 
that  would  have  done  credit  to  any  American 
after-dinner  speaker ;  and  I,  in  my  short  address, 
said  that  the  relations  between  the  two  countries 
had  never  been  better  and  that  so  long  as  my 
personal  friends  like  Zimmermann  and  other 
members  of  the  government,  who  I  named,  were 
in  office,  I  was  sure  that  the  good  relations  be- 
tween the  two  countries  would  be  maintained.  I 
spoke  also  of  the  sums  of  money  that  I  had 
brought  back  with  me  for  the  benefit  of  the 
widows  and  orphans  of  Germany. 

The  majority  of  the  German  newspapers  spoke 
in  a  very  kindly  way  about  this  dinner  and  about 
what  was  said  at  it.  Of  course,  they  all  took 
what  I  said  as  an  expression  of  friendliness,  and 
only  Reventlow  claimed  that,  by  referring  to  the 
members  of  the  government,  I  was  interfering  in 
the  internal  affairs  of  Germany. 

The  speeches  and,  in  fact,  this  dinner  con- 
stituted a  last  desperate  attempt  to  preserve 
friendly  relations.  Both  the  reasonable  men 
present  and  I  knew,  almost  to  a  certainty,  that 
return  to  ruthless  submarine  war  had  been  de- 
cided on  and  that  only  some  lucky  chance  could 
prevent  the  military,  backed  by  the  made  public 

363 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

opinion,  from  insisting  on  a  defiance  of  interna- 
tional law  and  the  laws  of  humanity. 

The  day  after  the  dinner  the  Chancellor  sent 
for  me  and  expressed  approval  of  what  I  said 
and  thanked  me  for  it  and  on  the  surface  it 
seemed  as  if  everything  was  uas  merry  as  a  mar- 
riage bell."  Unfortunately,  I  am  afraid  that  all 
this  was  only  on  the  surface,  and  that  perhaps 
the  orders  to  the  submarine  commanders  to  re- 
commence ruthless  war  had  been  given  the  day 
preceding  this  love-feast. 

The  Germans  believed  that  President  Wilson 
had  been  elected  with  a  mandate  to  keep  out  of 
war  at  any  cost,  and  that  America  could  be  in- 
sulted, flouted  and  humiliated  with  impunity. 

Even  before  this  dinner  we  had  begun  to  get 
rumours  of  the  resumption  of  ruthless  submarine 
war  and  within  a  few  days  I  was  cabling  to  the 
Department  information  based  not  upon  abso- 
lute facts  but  upon  reports  which  seemed  relia- 
ble and  which  had  been  collected  through  the 
able  efforts  of  our  very  capable  naval  attache, 
Commander  Gherardi. 

And  this  information  was  confirmed  by  the 
hints  given  to  me  by  various  influential  Germans. 
Again  and  again  after  the  sixth  of  January, 
I  was  assured  by  Zimmermann  and  others  in  the 
Foreign  Office  that  nothing  of  the  kind  was  con- 
templated. 

364 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

Now  were  the  German  moves  in  the  direction 
of  peace  sincere  or  not? 

From  the  time  when  the  Chancellor  first  spoke 
of  peace,  I  asked  him  and  others  what  the  peace 
terms  of  Germany  were.  I  could  never  get  any 
one  to  state  any  definite  terms  of  peace  and  on 
several  occasions  when  I  asked  the  Chancellor 
whether  Germany  was  willing  to  withdraw  from 
Belgium,  he  always  said,  "Yes,  but  with  guaran- 
tees." Finally  in  January,  1917,  when  he  was 
again  talking  of  peace,  I  said,  "What  are  these 
peace  terms  to  which  you  refer  continually? 
Will  you  allow  me  to  ask  a  few  questions  as  to 
the  specific  terms  of  peace?  First  are  the  Ger- 
mans willing  to  withdraw  from  Belgium?"  The 
Chancellor  answered,  "Yes,  but  with  guaran- 
tees." I  said,  "What  are  these  guarantees?"  He 
said,  "We  must  possibly  have  the  forts  of  Liege 
and  Namur;  we  must  have  other  forts  and  gar- 
risons throughout  Belgium.  We  must  have  pos- 
session of  the  railroad  lines.  We  must  have  pos- 
session of  the  ports  and  other  means  of  commu- 
nication. The  Belgians  will  not  be  allowed  to 
maintain  an  army,  but  we  must  be  allowed  to 
retain  a  large  army  in  Belgium.  We  must  have 
the  commercial  control  of  Belgium."  I  said,  "I 
do  not  see  that  you  have  left  much  for  the  Bel- 
gians except  that  King  Albert  will  have  the  right 
to  reside  in  Brussels  with  an  honor  guard."  And 

365 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

the  Chancellor  said,  "We  cannot  allow  Belgium 
to  be  an  outpost  (Vorwerk)  of  England";  and 
I  said,  "I  do  not  suppose  the  English,  on  the 
other  hand,  wish  it  to  become  an  outpost  of 
Germany,  especially  as  von  Tirpitz  has  said  that 
the  coast  of  Flanders  should  be  retained  in  or- 
der to  make  war  on  England  and  America." 
I  continued,  "How  about  Northern  France?"  He 
said,  "We  are  willing  to  leave  Northern  France, 
but  there  must  be  a  rectification  of  the  frontier." 
I  said,  "How  about  the  Eastern  frontier?"  He 
said,  "We  must  have  a  very  substantial  rectifica- 
tion of  our  frontier."  I  said,  "How  about  Rou- 
mania?"  He  said,  "We  shall  leave  Bulgaria  to 
deal  with  Roumania."  I  said,  "How  about  Ser- 
bia?" He  said,  "A  very  small  Serbia  may  be 
allowed  to  exist,  but  that  is  a  question  for  Aus- 
tria. Austria  must  be  left  to  do  what  she  wishes 
to  Italy,  and  we  must  have  indemnities  from  all 
countries  and  all  our  ships  and  colonies  back." 

Of  course,  "rectification  of  the  frontier"  is  a 
polite  term  for  "annexation." 

On  the  twenty-second  of  January,  1917,  our 
President  addressed  the  Senate;  and  in  his  ad- 
dress he  referred  to  his  Note  of  the  eighteenth 
of  December,  sent  to  all  belligerent  governments. 
In  this  address  he  stated,  referring  to  the  reply 
of  the  Entente  Powers  to  his  Peace  Note  of  the 
eighteenth  of  December,  "We  are  that  much 

366 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

nearer  to  the  definite  discussion  of  the  peace 
which  shall  end  the  present  war." 

He  referred  to  the  willingness  of  both  con- 
testants to  discuss  terms  of  peace,  as  follows: 
"The  Central  Powers  united  in  reply  which 
stated  merely  that  they  were  ready  to  meet 
their  antagonists  in  conference  to  discuss 
terms  of  peace.  The  Entente  Powers  have  re- 
plied much  more  definitely  and  have  stated,  in 
general  terms,  indeed,  but  with  sufficient  defi- 
niteness  to  imply  details,  the  arrangements,  guar- 
antees and  acts  of  reparation  which  they  deem  to 
be  the  indispensable  conditions  of  a  satisfac- 
tory settlement.  We  are  that  much  nearer  a  defi- 
nite discussion  of  the  peace  which  shall  end  the 
present  war."  The  President  further  referred 
to  a  world  concert  to  guarantee  peace  in  the  fu- 
ture and  said,  "The  present  war  must  first  be 
ended,  but  we  owe  it  to  candour  and  to  a  just  re- 
gard for  the  opinion  of  mankind  to  say  that  so 
far  as  our  participation  in  guarantees  of  future 
peace  is  concerned,  it  makes  a  great  deal  of  dif- 
ference in  what  way  and  upon  what  terms  it  is 
ended."  He  said  that  the  statesmen  of  both  of 
the  groups  of  nations  at  war  had  stated  that  it 
was  not  part  of  the  purpose  they  had  in  mind  to 
crush  their  antagonists,  and  he  said  that  it  must 
be  implied  from  these  assurances  that  the  peace 
to  come  must  be  "a  peace  without  victory." 

367 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

In  the  course  of  his  address  he  said :  "States- 
men everywhere  are  agreed  that  there  should  be 
a  united,  independent  and  autonomous  Poland." 
In  another  place  he  said:  "So  far  as  practicable, 
moreover,  every  great  people  now  struggling  to- 
ward a  full  development  of  its  resources  and  its 
powers  should  be  assured  a  direct  outlet  to  the 
highways  of  the  sea."  Where  this  cannot  be  done 
by  cession  of  territory  it  can  no  doubt  be 
arranged  by  the  neutralisation  of  direct  rights 
of  way ;  and  he  closed  by  proposing  in  effect  that 
the  nations  of  the  world  should  adopt  the  Mon- 
roe Doctrine  and  that  no  nation  should  seek  to 
explain  its  policy  for  any  other  nation  or  people. 

After  the  receipt  of  the  Ultimatum  of  Janu- 
ary thirty-first  from  Germany,  the  Chancellor,  in 
a  conversation  I  had  with  him,  referred  to  this 
Peace  Note  of  December  eighteenth  and  to  the 
speech  of  January  twenty-second. 

I  must  say  here  that  on  my  return  to  Germany 
I  went  very  far  in  assuring  the  Chancellor  and 
other  members  of  the  Government  of  the  Presi- 
dent's desire  to  see  peace  established  in  the 
world;  and  I  told  them  that  I  believed  that  the 
President  was  ready  to  go  very  far  in  the  way  of 
coercing  any  nation  which  refused  a  reasonable 
peace;  but  I  also  impressed  on  all  the  members  of 
the  Government  with  whom  I  came  in  contact  my 
belief  that  the  election  had  not  in  any  way  al- 

368 


JCOMire  D'ALII 

0'- 


FION  DU  WORD  PE  LA  FRANCE 


DISTRICT  DE  CHARLEVILLE 


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/"        PREMIERE  quinzaine  du  mcis  de  MHI   1916 

V'  :S":   ...      '    ' 

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MARCBAND1BIS 

'."",."  ."Z.7,1        :                                       PRiraBAEB.TlETSTE 

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2.  Six  

0  fr.  40 

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3.  Haricots  

0  k.  500                                     —        0  fr.  90 

4.  I*rd   

0  k.  500                                     —        2  fr.  80 

0  k.  250                                     —        2  fr.  30 

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8.  8el  

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p                                                                       I 

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'jit  Present  du  Sutrut, 

>T                                           O.    CAMIOrV 

Oette    afficlio    dolt '  fetr< :    eippoaOo    a.vnnt    If*    dtistz-ibution. 


A  POSTER  FROM  THE  CHARLEVILLE  DISTRICT,  SHOWING 
THE  ALLOTMENT  OF  FOOD  TO  EACH  PERSON  FOR  THE 
FIRST  FIFTEEN  DAYS  OF  MAY,  IQl6 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

tercd  the  policy  of  the  President,  and  I  warned 
them  of  the  danger  to  our  good  relations  if  ruth- 
less submarine  warfare  should  be  resumed. 

The  Chancellor,  however,  at  this  interview 
after  the  thirty-first  of  January,  said  that  he  had 
been  compelled  to  take  up  ruthless  submarine  war 
because  it  was  evident  that  President  Wilson 
could  do  nothing  towards  peace.  He  spoke  par- 
ticularly of  the  President's  speech  of  January 
twenty-second  and  said  that  in  that  speech  the 
President  had  made  it  plain  that  he  considered 
that  the  answer  of  the  Entente  Powers  to  his 
Peace  Note  formed  a  basis  for  peace,  which  was  a 
thing  impossible  for  Germany  even  to  consider; 
and  said  further  (and  this  was  a  criticism  I  heard 
not  only  from  him,  but  also  from  many  Ger- 
mans), that  when  the  President  spoke  of  a 
united  and  independent  Poland  he  evidently 
meant  to  take  away  from  Germany  that  part 
of  Poland  which  had  been  incorporated  in 
the  Kingdom  of  Prussia  and  give  it  to  this 
new  and  independent  Kingdom,  thereby  bring- 
ing the  Eastern  frontier  of  Germany  within 
two  hours  by  motor  from  Berlin;  and  that,  fur- 
ther, when  the  President  spoke  of  giving  each 
nation  a  highway  to  the  sea,  he  meant  that  the 
German  port  of  Dantzig  should  be  turned  over  to 
this  new  State  of  Poland,  thereby  not  only  tak- 
ing a  Prussian  port  but  cutting  the  extreme  East- 

369 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

ern  part  of  Prussia  from  the  remainder  of  the 
country.  I  said  that  these  objections  appeared 
to  me  very  frivolous;  that  the  President,  of 
course,  like  a  clever  lawyer  endeavouring  to  gain 
his  end,  which  was  peace,  had  said  that  all  par- 
ties were  apparently  agreed  that  there  should 
be  a  peace;  that  if  Germany  were  fighting  a 
merely  defensive  war,  as  she  had  always  claimed, 
she  should  be  greatly  delighted  when  the 
President  declared  that  all  the  weight  of  Amer- 
ica was  in  favor  of  a  peace  without  victory, 
which  meant,  of  course,  that  Germany  should 
be  secured  from  that  crushing  and  dismember- 
ment which  Germany's  statesmen  had  stated  so 
often  that  they  feared.  I  said,  further,  that  I 
was  sure  that  when  the  President  spoke  of  the 
united  and  independent  State  of  Poland  he  had 
not,  of  course,  had  reference  to  Poland  at  any 
particular  period  of  its  history,  but  undoubtedly 
to  Poland  as  constituted  by  Germany  and 
Austria  themselves;  and  that,  in  referring  to  the 
right  of  a  nation  to  have  access  to  the  sea,  he 
had  in  mind  Russia  and  the  Dardanelles  rather 
than  to  any  attempt  to  take  a  Prussian  port  for 
the  benefit  of  Poland. 

The  Chancellor  said  that  one  of  the  principal 
reasons  why  Germany  had  determined  upon  a  re- 
sumption of  ruthless  submarine  warfare  was 
because  of  this  speech  of  the  President  to  the 

370 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

American  Senate.  Of  course,  the  trouble  with 
this  feeling  and  the  criticism  of  the  President's 
speech  made  by  the  Chancellor  is  that  the  orders 
for  the  resumption  of  ruthless  submarine  war- 
fare had  been  given  long  before  the  news  of  the 
speech  came  to  Germany. 

I  had  cabled  the  information  collected  by  Com- 
mander Gherardi  as  to  the  orders  given  to  sub- 
marines long  before  the  date  of  the  President's 
speech,  and  it  happened  that  on  the  night  after  I 
had  received  the  German  note  announcing  this  re- 
sumption I  was  taking  a  walk  after  dinner  about 
the  snow-covered  streets  of  Berlin.  In  the  course 
of  this  walk  I  met  a  young  German  woman  of 
my  acquaintance  who  was  on  intimate  terms 
with  the  Crown  Princess.  She  was  on  her  way 
on  foot  from  the  opera  house,  where  she  had 
been  with  the  Crown  Princess,  to  the  under- 
ground station,  for  by  this  time,  of  course,  taxis 
had  become  an  unknown  luxury  in  Berlin,  and  I 
joined  her.  I  told  her  of  the  Ultimatum  which 
I  had  received  at  six  o'clock  that  evening  from 
Zimmermann  and  I  told  her  that  I  was  sure  that 
it  meant  the  breaking  of  diplomatic  relations  and 
our  departure  from  Germany.  She  expressed 
great  surprise  that  the  submarine  warfare  was 
set  to  commence  on  the  thirty-first  of  January 
and  said  that  weeks  before  they  had  been  talk- 
ing over  the  matter  at  the  Crown  Princess's  and 

371 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

that  she  had  heard  then  that  the  orders  had  been 
given  to  commence  it  on  the  fifteenth.  In  any 
event  it  is  certain  that  the  orders  to  the  subma- 
rine commanders  had  been  given  long  prior  to 
the  thirty-first  and  probably  as  early  as  the  fif- 
teenth. 

I  sincerely  believe  that  the  only  object  of  the 
Germans  in  making  these  peace  offers  was  first 
to  get  the  Allies,  if  possible,  in  a  conference  and 
there  detach  some  or  one  of  them  by  the  offer 
of  separate  terms ;  or,  if  this  scheme  failed,  then 
it  was  believed  that  the  general  offer  and  talk 
about  peace  would  create  a  sentiment  so  favour- 
able to  the  Germans  that  they  might,  without 
fear  of  action  by  the  United  States,  resume  ruth- 
less submarine  warfare  against  England. 

A  week  or  two  before  the  thirty-first  of  Janu- 
ary, Dr.  Solf  asked  me  if  I  did  not  think  that  it 
would  be  possible  for  the  United  States  to  permit 
the  resumption  of  ruthless  submarine  warfare 
against  England.  He  said  that  three  months' 
time  was  all  that  would  be  required  to  bring  Eng- 
land to  her  knees  and  end  the  war.  And  in  fact 
so  cleverly  did  von  Tirpitz,  Grand  Admiral  von 
Meuster,  the  Conservatives  and  the  enemies  of 
the  Chancellor  and  other  advocates  of  submarine 
war  carry  on  their  propaganda  that  the  belief 
was  ingrained  in  the  whole  of  the  German  na- 
tion that  a  resumption  of  this  ruthless  war  would 

372 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

lead  within  three  months  to  what  all  Germans 
so  ardently  desired — peace.  It  was  impossible 
for  any  government  to  resist  the  popular  demand 
for  the  use  of  this  illegal  means  of  warfare,  be- 
cause army  and  navy  and  people  were  convinced 
that  ruthless  submarine  war  spelled  success  and 
a  glorious  peace. 

But  this  peace,  of  course,  meant  only  a  Ger- 
man peace,  a  peace  as  outlined  to  me  by  the 
Chancellor ;  a  peace  impossible  for  the  Allies  and 
even  for  the  world  to  accept;  a  peace  which 
would  leave  Germany  immensely  powerful  and 
ready  immediately  after  the  war  to  take  up  a 
campaign  against  the  nations  of  the  Western 
hemisphere;  a  peace  which  would  compel  every 
nation,  so  long  as  German  autocracy  remained  in 
the  saddle,  to  devote  its  best  energies,  the  most 
fruitful  period  of  each  man's  life,  to  preparations 
for  war. 

On  January  thirtieth,  I  received  a  definite  inti- 
mation of  the  coming  Ultimatum  the  next  day 
and,  judging  that  the  hint  meant  the  resumption 
of  ruthless  submarine  war,  I  telegraphed  a 
warning  to  the  American  Ambassadors  and  Min- 
isters as  well  as  to  the  State  Department.  On 
January  thirty-first  at  about  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  I  received  from  Zimmermann  a  short 
letter  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy: 

373 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

"The  Secretary  of  State  of  the  Foreign 
Office,  Zimmermann,  requests  the  honor  of 
the  visit  of  his  Excellency,  the  Ambassador 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  this  after- 
noon at  six  o'clock  in  the  Foreign  Office, 
Wilhelmstrasse  75/76. 

"Berlin,  the  3ist  January,  1917." 

Pursuant  to  this  letter,  I  went  to  the  Foreign 
Office  at  six  o'clock.  Zimmermann  then  read 
to  me  in  German  a  note  from  the  Imperial  Gov- 
ernment, announcing  the  creation  of  the  war 
zones  about  Great  Britain  and  France  and  the 
commencement  of  ruthless  submarine  warfare  at 
twelve  P.  M.  that  night.  I  made  no  comment, 
put  the  note  in  my  pocket  and  went  back  to  the 
Embassy.  It  was  then  about  seven  P.  M.  and, 
of  course,  the  note  was  immediately  translated 
and  despatched  with  all  speed  to  America. 

After  the  despatch  of  the  note  I  had  an  inter- 
view with  the  Chancellor  in  which  he,  as  I  have 
stated  above,  criticised  both  the  Peace  Note  of 
December  eighteenth  as  not  being  definite 
enough  and  the  speech  to  the  Senate  of  January 
twenty-second ;  and  further  said  that  he  believed 
that  the  situation  had  changed,  that,  in  spite  of 
what  the  President  had  said  in  the  note  before 
the  Sussex  settlement,  he  was  now  for  peace, 
that  he  had  been  elected  on  a  peace  platform,  and 

374 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

that  nothing  would  happen.  Zimmermann  at  the 
time  he  delivered  the  note  told  me  that  this  sub- 
marine warfare  was  a  necessity  for  Germany, 
and  that  Germany  could  not  hold  out  a  year  on 
the  question  of  food.  He  further  said,  "Give  us 
only  two  months  of  this  kind  of  warfare  and  we 
shall  end  the  war  and  make  peace  within  three 
months." 

Saturday,  February  third,  the  President  an- 
nounced to  Congress  the  breaking  of  diplomatic 
relations  with  Germany.  The  news  of  this,  of 
course,  did  not  reach  Berlin  until  the  next  day; 
and  on  this  Saturday  afternoon  Mrs.  Gerard  and 
I  had  an  engagement  to  go  to  the  theatre  with 
Zimmermann  and  Mrs.  Friedlaender-Fuld-Mit- 
ford,  a  young  lady  whose  father  is  considered 
the  richest  man  in  Berlin,  and  who  had  been  mar- 
ried to  a  young  Englishman,  named  Mitford,  a 
son  of  Lord  Redesdale.  Through  no  fault  on  the 
lady's  part,  there  had  been  an  annulment  of  this 
marriage;  and  she  was  occupying  a  floor  of  her 
own  in  the  handsome  house  of  her  father  and 
mother  on  the  Pariser-Platz  in  Berlin.  We 
stopped  for  Mrs.  Mitford  and  took  her  to  the 
theatre  where  we  saw  a  very  clever  play,  I  think 
by  Thoma,  called  "Die  Verlorene  Tochter"  (The 
Prodigal  Daughter).  Zimmermann  did  not 
come  to  the  play  but  joined  us  later  at  the  Fried- 
laender-Fuld  House  where  we  had  a  supper  of 

375 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

four  in  Mrs.  Mitford's  apartments.  After  sup- 
per, while  I  was  talking  to  Zimmermanri,  he 
spoke  of  the  note  to  America  and  said :  "During 
the  past  month,  this  is  what  I  have  been  doing 
so  often  at  the  general  headquarters  with  the 
Emperor.  I  often  thought  of  telling  you  what 
was  going  on  as  I  used  to  tell  you  in  the  old  days, 
but  I  thought  that  you  would  only  say  that 
such  a  course  would  mean  a  break  of  diplomatic 
relations,  and  so  I  thought  there  was  no  use  in 
telling  you.  But  as  you  will  see,  everything  will 
be  all  right.  America  will  do  nothing,  for  Presi- 
dent Wilson  is  for  peace  and  nothing  else.  Every- 
thing will  go  on  as  before.  I  have  arranged  for 
you  to  go  to  the  great  general  headquarters  and 
see  the  Kaiser  next  week  and  everything  will  be 
all  right." 

The  next  day,  Sunday,  we  had  a  German  who 
is  connected  with  the  Foreign  Office  and  his 
American  wife  to  lunch,  and  another  German 
who  had  been  in  America,  also  connected  with 
the  Foreign  Office.  Just  as  we  were  going  in  to 
lunch  some  one  produced  a  copy  of  the  "B.  Z", 
the  noon  paper  published  in  Berlin,  which  con- 
tained what  seemed  to  be  an  authentic  account 
of  the  breaking  of  diplomatic  relations  by  Amer- 
ica. The  lunch  was  far  from  cheerful.  The 
Germans  looked  very  sad  and  said  practically 

376 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

nothing,  while  I  tried  to  make  polite  conversation 
at  my  end  of  the  table. 

The  next  day  I  went  over  to  see  Zimmermann, 
having  that  morning  received  the  official  des- 
patch from  Washington,  and  told  him  that  I 
had  come  to  demand  my  passports. 

Of  course,  Zimmermann  by  that  time  had  re- 
ceived the  news  and  had  had  time  to  compose 
himself.  The  American  correspondents  told  me 
that  when  he  saw  them  on  the  day  before,  he  had 
at  first  refused  to  say  anything  and  then  had 
been  rather  violent  in  his  language  and  had  fi- 
nally shown  great  emotion.  I  am  sure,  from 
everything  I  observed,  that  the  break  of  diplo- 
matic relations  came  as  an  intense  surprise  to 
him  and  to  the  other  members  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  yet  I  cannot  imagine  why  intelligent 
men  should  think  that  the  United  States  of 
America  had  fallen  so  low  as  to  bear  without 
murmur  this  sudden  kick  in  the  face. 

The  police  who  had  always  been  about  our 
Embassy  since  the  commencement  of  the  war, 
were  now  greatly  increased  in  numbers;  and 
guarded  not  only  the  front  of  the  house,  but  also 
the  rear  and  the  surrounding  streets;  but  there 
was  no  demonstration  whatever  on  the  part  of  the 
people  of  Berlin.  On  Tuesday  afternoon  I  went 
out  for  a  walk,  walking  through  most  of  the 
principal  streets  of  Berlin,  absolutely  alone,  and 

377 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

on  my  return  to  the  Embassy  I  found  Count 
Montgelas,  who,  with  the  rank  of  Minister,  was 
at  the  head  of  the  department  which  included 
American  affairs  in  the  Foreign  Office.  I  asked 
Montgelas  why  I  had  not  received  my  passports, 
and  he  said  that  I  was  being  kept  back  because 
the  Imperial  Government  did  not  know  what  had 
happened  to  Count  Bernstorff  and  that  there  had 
been  rumours  that  the  German  ships  in  America 
had  been  confiscated  by  our  government.  I  said 
that  I  was  quite  sure  that  Bernstorff  was  being 
treated  with  every  courtesy  and  that  the  German 
ships  had  not  been  confiscated.  I  said,  moreover, 
"I  do  not  see  why  I  have  to  disprove  your  idea 
that  Bernstorff  is  being  maltreated  and  the  Ger- 
man ships  confiscated.  It  seems  to  me  it  is  for 
you  to  prove  this;  and,  at  any  event,  why  don't 
you  have  the  Swiss  Government,  which  now  rep- 
resents you,  cable  to  its  Minister  in  Washington 
and  get  the  exact  facts?"  He  said,  "Well,  you 
know,  the  Swiss  are  not  used  to  cabling." 

He  then  produced  a  paper  which  was  a  re-af- 
firmation of  the  treaty  between  Prussia  and  the 
United  States  of  1799,  with  some  very  extraor- 
dinary clauses  added  to  it.  He  asked  me  to  read 
this  over  and  either  to  sign  it  or  to  get  authority 
to  sign  it,  and  said  that  if  it  was  not  signed  it 
would  be  very  difficult  for  Americans  to  leave 
the  country,  particularly  the  American  corre- 

378 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

spondents.  I  read  this  treaty  over  and  then  said, 
"Of  course  I  cannot  sign  this  on  my  own  re- 
sponsibility and  I  will  not  cable  to  my  govern- 
ment unless  I  can  cable  in  cipher  and  give  them 
my  opinion  of  this  document."  He  said,  "That 
is  impossible."  This  treaty  was  as  follows: 

Agreement  between  Germany  and  the  United  States 
of  America  concerning  the  treatment  of  each  other's 
citizens  and  their  private  property  after  the  severance 
of  diplomatic  relations. 

Article  I. 

After  the  severance  of  diplomatic  relations  between 
Germany  and  the  United  States  of  America  and  in  the 
event  of  the  outbreak  of  war  between  the  two  Powers 
the  citizens  of  either  party  and  their  private  property 
in  the  territory  of  the  other  party  shall  be  treated  ac- 
cording to  Article  23  of  the  treaty  of  amity  and  com- 
merce between  Prussia  and  the  United  States  of  n 
July,  1799,  with  the  following  explanatory  and  sup- 
plementary clauses. 

Article  2. 

German  merchants  in  the  United  States  and  Amer- 
ican merchants  in  Germany  shall  so  far  as  the  treat- 
ment of  their  persons  and  their  property  is  concerned 
be  held  in  every  respect  on  a  par  with  the  other  per- 
sons mentioned  in  Article  23.  Accordingly  they  shall 
even  after  the  period  provided  for  in  Article  23  has 
elapsed  be  entitled  to  remain  and  continue  their  pro- 
fession in  the  country  of  their  residence. 

Merchants  as  well  as  the  other  persons  mentioned 
in  Article  23  may  be  excluded  from  fortified  places  or 
other  places  of  military  importance. 

379 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

Article  j. 

Germans  in  the  United  States  and  Americans  in 
Germany  shall  be  free  to  leave  the  country  of  their 
residence  within  the  times  and  by  the  routes  that  shall 
be  assigned  to  them  by  the  proper  authorities. 

The  persons  departing  shall  be  entitled  to  take  along 
their  personal  property  including  money,  valuables  and 
bank  accounts  excepting  such  property  the  exportation 
of  which  is  prohibited  according  to  general  provisions. 

Article  4. 

The  protection  of  Germans  in  the  United  States 
and  of  Americans  in  Germany  and  of  their  property 
shall  be  guaranteed  in  accordance  with  the  laws  ex- 
isting in  the  countries  of  either  party.  They  shall  be 
under  no  other  restrictions  concerning  the  enjoyment 
of  their  private  rights  and  the  judicial  enforcement 
of  their  rights  than  neutral  residents;  they  may  ac- 
cordingly not  be  transferred  to  concentration  camps 
nor  shall  their  private  property  be  subject  to  seques- 
tration or  liquidation  or  other  compulsory  alienation 
except  in  cases  that  under  the  existing  laws  apply  also 
to  neutrals. 

As  a  general  rule,  German  property  in  the  United 
States  and  American  property  in  Germany  shall  not 
be  subject  to  sequestration  or  liquidation  or  other 
compulsory  alienation  under  other  conditions  than 
neutral  property. 

Article  5. 

Patent  rights  or  other  protected  rights  held  by 
Germans  in  the  United  States  or  Americans  in  Ger- 
many shall  not  be  declared  void;  nor  shall  the  exercise 
of  such  rights  be  impeded  nor  shall  such  rights  be 
transferred  to  others  without  the  consent  of  the  per- 
son entitled  thereto;  provided  that  regulations  made 

380 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

exclusively  in  the  interest  of  the  State  shall  apply. 

Article  6. 

Contracts  made  between  Germans  and  Americans 
either  before  or  after  the  severance  of  diplomatic  re- 
lations, also  obligations  of  all  kinds  between  Germans 
and  Americans  shall  not  be  declared  cancelled,  void  or 
in  suspension  except  under  provisions  applicable  to 
neutrals. 

Likewise  the  citizens  of  either  party  shall  not  be 
impeded  in  fulfilling  their  liabilities  arising  from  such 
obligations  either  by  injunctions  or  by  other  provi- 
sions unless  these  apply  also  to  neutrals. 

Article  f. 

The  provisions  of  the  sixth  Hague  Convention  rela- 
tive to  the  treatment  of  enemy  merchant  ships  at  out- 
break of  hostilities  shall  apply  to  the  merchant  vessels 
of  either  party  and  their  cargo. 

The  aforesaid  ships  may  not  be  forced  to  leave  port 
unless  at  the  same  time  they  be  given  a  pass  recognised 
as  binding  by  all  the  enemy  sea  powers  to  a  home  port 
or  a  port  of  an  allied  country  or  to  another  port  of 
the  country  in  which  the  ship  happens  to  be. 

Article  8. 

The  regulations  of  chapter  3  of  the  eleventh  Hague 
Convention  relative  to  certain  restrictions  in  the  exer- 
cise of  the  right  of  capture  in  maritime  war  shall  ap- 
ply to  the  captains,  officers  and  members  of  the  crews 
of  merchant  ships  specified  in  Article  7  and  of  such 
merchant  ships  that  may  be  captured  in  the  course  of 
a  possible  war. 

Article  p. 

This  agreement  shall  apply  also  to  the  colonies  and 
other  foreign  possessions  of  either  party. 

Berlin,  February         ,   1917. 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

I  then  said,  "I  shall  not  cable  at  all.  Why  do 
you  come  to  me  with  a  proposed  treaty  after  we 
have  broken  diplomatic  relations  and  ask  an 
Ambassador  who  is  held  as  a  prisoner  to  sign  it? 
Prisoners  do  not  sign  treaties  and  treaties  signed 
by  them  would  not  be  worth  anything."  And  I 
also  said,  " After  your  threat  to  keep  Americans 
here  and  after  reading  this  document,  even  if  I 
had  authority  to  sign  it  I  would  stay  here  until 
hell  freezes  over  before  I  would  put  my  name  to 
such  a  paper." 

Montgelas  seemed  rather  rattled,  and  in  his 
confusion  left  the  paper  with  me — something,  I 
am  sure,  he  did  not  intend  to  do  in  case  of  a  re- 
fusal. Montgelas  was  an  extremely  agreeable 
man  and  I  think  at  all  times  had  correctly  pre- 
dicted the  attitude  of  America  and  had  been 
against  acts  of  frightfulness,  such  as  the  torpe- 
doing of  the  Lusitania  and  the  resumption  of 
ruthless  submarine  war.  I  am  sure  that  a  gen- 
tleman like  Montgelas  undertook  with  great  re- 
luctance to  carry  out  his  orders  in  the  matter  of 
getting  me  to  sign  this  treaty. 

I  must  cheerfully  certify  that  even  the  most 
pro-German  American  correspondents  in  Ber- 
lin, when  I  told  them  of  Montgelas'  threat, 
showed  the  same  fine  spirit  as  their  colleagues. 
All  bep;ged  me  not  to  consider  them  or  their  lib- 

382 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

erty  where  the  interests  of  America  were  in- 
volved. 

As  soon  as  diplomatic  relations  were  broken, — 
and  I  broke  them  formally  not  only  in  my  con- 
versation with  Zimmermann  of  Monday  morn- 
ing but  also  by  sending  over  a  formal  written 
request  for  my  passports  on  the  evening  of  that 
day, — our  telegraph  privileges  were  cut  off.  I  was 
not  even  allowed  to  send  telegrams  to  the  Ameri- 
can consuls  throughout  Germany  giving  them 
their  instructions.  Mail  also  was  cut  off,  and 
the  telephone.  My  servants  were  not  even  per- 
mitted to  go  to  the  nearby  hotel  to  telephone.  In 
the  meantime  we  completed  our  preparations  for 
departure.  We  arranged  to  turn  over  Ameri- 
can interests,  and  the  interests  of  Roumania  and 
Serbia  and  Japan,  to  the  Spanish  Embassy;  and 
the  interests  of  Great  Britain  to  the  Dutch.  I 
have  said  already  that  I  believe  that  Ambassador 
Polo  de  Bernabe  will  faithfully  protect  the  in- 
terests of  America,  and  I  believe  that  Baron 
Gevers  will  fearlessly  fight  the  cause  of  the  Brit- 
ish prisoners. 

We  sold  our  automobiles;  and  two  beautiful 
prize  winning  saddle  horses,  one  from  Kentucky 
and  one  from  Virginia,  which  I  had  brought  with 
me  from  America,  went  on  the  stage, — that  is,  I 
sold  them  to  the  proprietor  of  the  circus  in 
Berlin! 

383 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

The  three  tons  of  food  which  we  had  brought 
with  us  from  America  we  gave  to  our  colleagues 
in  the  diplomatic  corps, — the  Spaniards,  Greeks, 
Dutch  and  the  Central  and  South  Americans.  I 
had  many  friends  among  the  diplomats  of  the  two 
Americas  who  were  all  men  of  great  ability  and 
position  in  their  own  country.  I  think  that  most 
of  them  know  only  too  well  the  designs  against 
Central  and  South  America  cherished  by  the 
Pan-Germans. 

Finally,  I  think  on  the  morning  of  Friday,  Mr. 
Oscar  King  Davis,  correspondent  of  the  New 
York  Times,  received  a  wireless  from  Mr.  Van 
Anda,  editor  of  the  New  York  Times,  telling  him 
that  Bernstorff  and  his  staff  were  being  treated 
with  every  courtesy  and  that  the  German  ships 
had  not  been  confiscated.  In  the  evening  our 
telephone  was  reconnected,  and  we  were  allowed 
to  receive  some  telegrams  and  to  send  open  tele- 
grams to  the  consuls,  etc.  throughout  Germany; 
and  we  were  notified  that  we  would  probably  be 
allowed  to  leave  the  next  day  in  the  evening. 

Always  followed  by  spies,  I  paid  as  many  fare- 
well visits  to  my  diplomatic  colleagues  as  I  was 
able  to  see;  and  on  Saturday  I  thought  that,  in 
spite  of  the  ridiculous  treatment  accorded  us  in 
cutting  off  the  mail  and  telephone  and  in  hold- 
ing me  for  nearly  a  week,  I  would  leave  in  a 
sporting  spirit:  I  therefore,  had  my  servant  tele- 

384 


phone  and  ask  whether  Zimmermann  and  the 
Chancellor  would  receive  me.  I  had  a  pleasant 
farewell  talk  of  about  half  an  hour  with  each 
of  them  and  I  expressly  told  the  Chancellor  that 
I  had  come  to  bid  him  a  personal  farewell,  not 
to  make  a  record  for  any  White  Book,  and  that 
anything  he  said  would  remain  confidential.  I 
also  stopped  in  to  thank  Dr.  Zahn,  of  the  For- 
eign Office,  who  had  arranged  the  details  of  our 
departure  and  gave  him  a  gold  cigarette  case 
as  a  souvenir  of  the  occasion.  At  the  last  mo- 
ment, the  Germans  allowed  a  number  of  the  con- 
suls and  clerks  who  had  been  working  in  the 
Embassy,  and  the  American  residents  in  Berlin, 
to  leave  on  the  train  with  us;  so  that  we  were 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty  persons  in  all  on 
this  train,  which  left  the  Potsdamer  station  at 
eight-ten  in  the  evening.  The  time  of  our  de- 
parture had  not  been  publicly  announced,  but  al- 
though the  automobiles,  etc.  in  front  of  the  Em- 
bassy might  have  attracted  a  crowd,  there  was 
no  demonstration  whatever;  and,  in  fact,  during 
this  week  that  I  was  detained  in  Berlin  I  walked 
all  over  the  city  every  afternoon  and  evening, 
went  into  shops,  and  so  on,  without  encounter- 
ing any  hostile  demonstration. 

There  was  a  large  crowd  in  the  station  to  see 
us  off.  All  the  Spanish  Embassy,  Dutch,  Greeks 
and  many  of  our  colleagues  from  Central  and 

385 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

South  America  were  there.  There  were,  from 
the  Foreign  Office,  Montgelas,  Dr.  Roediger, 
Prittwitz  and  Horstmann.  As  the  train  pulled 
out,  a  number  of  the  Americans  left  in  Berlin 
who  were  on  the  station  platform  raised  quite  a 
vigorous  cheer. 

Two  officers  had  been  sent  by  the  Imperial 
Government  to  accompany  us  on  this  train;  one, 
a  Major  von  der  Hagen,  sent  by  the  General  Staff 
and  the  other,  a  representative  of  the  Foreign 
Office,  Baron  Wernher  von  Ow-Wachendorf.  It 
was  quite  thoughtful  of  the  Foreign  Office  to 
send  this  last  officer,  as  it  was  by  our  efforts  that 
he  had  secured  his  exchange  when  he  was  a  pris- 
oner in  England;  and  he,  therefore,  would  be 
supposed  to  entertain  kindly  feelings  for  our 
Embassy. 

I  had  ordered  plenty  of  champagne  and  cigars 
to  be  put  on  the  train  and  we  were  first  invited 
to  drink  champagne  with  the  officers  in  the  din- 
ing car;  then  they  joined  us  in  the  private  salon 
car  which  we  occupied  in  the  end  of  the  train. 
The  journey  was  uneventful.  Outside  some  of 
the  stations  a  number  of  people  were  drawn  up 
who  stared  at  the  train  in  a  bovine  way,  but 
who  made  no  demonstration  of  any  kind. 

We  went  through  Wurttemburg  and  entered 
Switzerland  by  way  of  Schaffhausen.  The  two 
officers  left  us  at  the  last  stop  on  the  German 

386 


DIPLOMATIC  NEGOTIATIONS 

side.  I  had  taken  the  precaution  before  we  left 
Berlin  to  find  out  their  names,  and,  as  they  left 
us,  I  gave  each  of  them  a  gold  cigarette  case  in- 
scribed with  his  name  and  the  date. 

At  the  first  station  on  the  Swiss  side  a  body 
of  Swiss  troops  were  drawn  up,  presenting  arms, 
and  the  Colonel  commanding  the  Swiss  army 
(there  are  no  generals  in  Switzerland),  attended 
by  several  staff  officers,  came  on  the  train  and 
travelled  with  us  nearly  to  Zurich. 

I  started  to  speak  French  to  one  of  these  staff 
officers,  but  he  interrupted  me  by  saying  in  per- 
fect English,  "You  do  not  have  to  speak  French 
to  me.  My  name  is  Iselin,  many  of  my  relations 
live  in  New  York  and  I  lived  there  myself  some 
years." 

At  Zurich  we  left  the  German  special  train, 
and  were  met  on  the  platform  by  some  grateful 
Japanese,  the  American  Consul  and  a  number 
of  French  and  Swiss  newspaper  reporters,  thus 
ending  our  exodus  from  Germany. 


387 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

AND  REASONABLE;  MEN 


I  HAVE  already  expressed  a  belief  that  Ger- 
many will  not  be  forced  to  make  peace  be- 
cause of  a  revolution,  and  that  sufficient  food  will 
be  somehow  found  to  carry  the  population  during 
at  least  another  year  of  war. 

What  then  offers  a  prospect  of  reasonable 
peace,  supposing,  of  course,  that  the  Germans 
fail  in  the  submarine  blockade  of  England  and 
that  the  crumbling  up  of  Russia  does  not  release 
from  the  East  frontier  soldiers  enough  to  break 
the  lines  of  the  British  and  French  in  France? 

I  think  that  it  is  only  by  an  evolution  of  Ger- 
many herself  toward  liberalism  that  the  world 
will  be  given  such  guarantees  of  future  peace  as 
will  justify  the  termination  of  this  war. 

There  is,  properly  speaking,  no  great  liberal 
party  in  the  political  arena  in  Germany.  As  I  have 
said,  the  Reichstag  is  divided  roughly  into  Con- 
servatives, Roman  Catholics,  or  Centrum,  and 
Social  Democrats.  The  so-called  National  Lib- 
eral party  has  in  this  war  shown  itself  a  branch 

388 


LIBERALS  AND  REASONABLE  MEN 

of  the  Conservativp  party,  and  on  some  issues 
as  bitter,  as  conservative,  as  the  Junkers  them- 
selves. Herr  Bassermann  and  Herr  Stresemann 
have  not  shown  themselves  leaders  of  liberal 
thought,  nor  has  their  leadership  been  such  as 
to  inspire  confidence  in  their  political  sagacity. 
It  was  Stresemann  who  on  May  thirtieth, 
1916,  said  in  the  Reichstag  referring  to  Presi- 
dent Wilson  as  a  peacemaker,  "We  thrust  the 
hand  of  Wilson  aside."  On  the  day  following, 
the  day  on  which  the  President  announced  to 
Congress  the  breaking  of  diplomatic  relations, 
news  of  that  break  had  not  yet  arrived  in  Berlin 
and  Herr  Stresemann  on  that  peaceful  Sunday 
morning  was  engaged  in  making  a  speech  to  the 
members  of  the  National  Liberal  party  in  which 
he  told  them  that  as  a  result  of  his  careful  study 
of  the  American  situation,  of  his  careful  re- 
searches into  American  character  and  politics, 
he  could  assure  them  that  America  would  never 
break  with  Germany.  As  he  concluded  his  speech 
and  sat  down  amid  the  applause  of  his  admirers, 
a  German  who  had  been  sitting  in  the  back  of 
the  room  rose  and  read  from  the  noon  paper,  the 
"B.  Z." ,  a  despatch  from  Holland  giving  the  news 
that  America  had  broken  relations  with  Ger- 
many. The  political  skill  and  foresight  of  Herr 
Stresemann  may  be  judged  from  the  above  in- 
cident. 

389 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

The  Socialists,  or  Social  Democrats,  more 
properly  speaking,  have  shown  themselves  in  op- 
position to  the  monarchical  form  of  government 
in  Germany.  This  has  put  them  politically,  mili- 
tarily and  socially  beyond  the  pale. 

After  a  successful  French  attack  in  the  Cham- 
pagne, I  heard  it  said  of  a  German  woman,  whose 
husband  was  thought  to  be  killed,  that  her  rage 
and  despair  had  been  so  great  that  she  had  said 
she  would  become  a  Social  Democrat;  and  her 
expression  was  repeated  as  showing  to  what 
lengths  grief  had  driven  her.  This  girl  was  the 
wife  of  an  ordinary  clerk  working  in  Berlin. 

The  Social  Democrats  are  not  given  offices, 
are  not  given  titles:  they  never  join  the  class  of 
"Rat,"  and  they  cannot  hope  to  become  officers 
of  the  army.  Did  not  Lieutenant  Forstner,  the 
notorious  centre  of  the  Zabern  Affair,  promise 
a  reward  to  the  first  one  of  his  men  who  in  case 
of  trouble  should  shoot  one  "of  those  damn  So- 
cial Democrats"? 

There  is,  therefore,  no  refuge  at  present  polit- 
ically, for  the  reasonable  men  of  liberal  inclina- 
tions ;  and  it  is  these  liberal  men  who  must  them- 
selves create  a  liberal  party :  a  party,  membership 
in  which  will  not  entail  a  loss  of  business,  a  loss 
of  prospects  of  promotion  and  social  degradation. 

There  are  many  such  men  in  Germany  to-day; 
perhaps  some  of  the  conservative  Socialists  will 

300 


LIBERALS  AND  REASONABLE  MEN 

join  such  a  party,  and  there  are  men  in  the  gov- 
ernment itself  whose  habits  of  mind  and  thought 
are  not  incompatible  with  membership  in  a  lib- 
eral organisation.  The  Chancellor  himself  is, 
perhaps,  at  heart  a  Liberal.  He  comes  of  a 
banking  family  in  Frankfort  and  while  there 
stands  before  his  name  the  "von"  which  means 
nobility,  and  while  he  owns  a  country  estate,  the 
whole  turn  of  his  thought  is  towards  a  philo- 
sophical liberalism.  Zimmermann,  the  Foreign 
Secretary,  although  the  mental  excitement  caused 
by  his  elevation  to  the  Foreign  Office  at  a  time 
of  stress,  made  him  go  over  to  the  advocates  of 
ruthless  submarine  war,  lock,  stock  and  barrel,  is 
nevertheless  at  heart  a  Liberal  and  violently  op- 
posed to  a  system  which  draws  the  leaders  of 
the  country  from  only  one  aristocratic  class.  Dr. 
Solf,  the  Imperial  Colonial  Minister,  while  de- 
voted to  the  Emperor  and  his  family  is  a  man 
so  reasonable  in  his  views,  so  indulgent  of  the 
views  of  others,  and  indulgent  without  weakness, 
that  he  would  make  an  ideal  leader  of  a  liberal- 
ised Germany.  The  great  bankers,  merchants 
and  manufacturers,  although  they  appreciate  the 
luscious  dividends  that  they  have  received  dur- 
ing the  peaceful  years  since  1870,  nevertheless 
feel  under  their  skins  the  ignominy  of  living  in 
a  country  where  a  class  exists  by  birth,  a  class 
not  even  tactful  enouh  to  conceal  its  ancient 


contempt  for  all  those  who  soil  their  hands  by 
business  or  trade. 

In  fact  such  a  party  is  a  necessity  for  Ger- 
many as  a  buffer  against  the  extreme  Social 
Democrats. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  the  soldiers  who  have 
fought  in  the  mud  of  the  trenches  for  three 
years  will  most  insistently  demand  a  redistrict- 
ing  of  the  Reichstag  and  an  abolition  of  the  in- 
adequate circle  voting  of  Prussia.  And  when 
manhood  suffrage  comes  in  Prussia  and  when 
the  industrial  population  of  Germany  gets  that 
representation  in  the  Reichstag  out  of  which 
they  have  been  brazenly  cheated  for  so  many 
years,  it  may  well  be  that  a  great  liberal  party 
will  be  the  only  defence  of  private  property 
against  the  assault  of  an  enraged  and  justly  re- 
vengeful social  democracy. 

The  workingmen  of  Germany  have  been  fooled 
for  a  long  time.  They  constitute  that  class  of 
which  President  Lincoln  spoke,  "You  can  fool 
some  of  the  people  all  of  the  time";  and  the 
middle  class  of  manufacturers,  merchants,  etc. 
have  acquiesced  in  the  system  because  of  the 
profits  that  they  have  made. 

The  difficulty  of  making  peace  with  Germany, 
as  at  present  constituted,  is  that  the  whole  world 
feels  thai  peace  made  with  its  present  govern- 
ment would  not  be  lasting;  that  such  a  peace 

392 


LIBERALS  AND  REASONABLE  MEN 

would  mean  the  detachment  of  some  of  the  Allies 
from  the  present  world  alliance  against  Ger- 
many; preparation  by  Germany,  in  the  light  of 
her  needs  as  disclosed  by  this  war;  and  the  dec- 
laration of  a  new  war  in  which  there  would  be 
no  battle  of  the  Marne  to  turn  back  the  tide  of 
German  world  conquest. 

For  a  long  time  before  this  war,  radicals  in 
England  pinned  a  great  faith  to  the  Socialist 
party  of  Germany.  How  little  that  faith  was 
justified  appeared  in  July  and  August  of  1914 
when  the  Socialist  party  tamely  voted  credits  for 
the  war;  a  war  declared  by  the  Emperor  on  the 
mere  statement  that  it  was  a  defensive  war; 
declared  because  it  was  alleged  that  certain  in- 
vasions of  German  territory,  never  since  sub- 
stantiated, had  taken  place. 

The  Socialist  party  is  divided.  It  is  a  great 
pity  that  the  world  cannot  deal  with  men  of  the 
type  of  Scheidemann,  who,  in  other  democracies, 
would  appear  so  conservative  as  to  be  almost 
reactionary.  But  Scheidemann  and  his  friends, 
while  they  have,  in  their  attempted  negotiations 
with  the  Socialists  of  other  countries,  the  pres- 
ent protection  of  the  Imperial  Government,  will 
have  no  hand  in  dictating  terms  of  peace  so  long 
as  that  government  is  in  existence.  They  are 
being  used  in  an  effort  to  divide  the  Allies. 

As  President  Wilson  said  in  his  message  to 
393 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

Russia  of  May  twenty-sixth,  1917:  "The  war 
has  begun  to  go  against  Germany,  and,  in  their 
desperate  desire  to  escape  the  inevitable  ultimate 
defeat,  those  who  are  in  authority  in  Germany 
are  using  every  possible  instrumentality,  are 
making  use  even  of  the  influence  of  the  groups 
and  parties  among  their  own  subjects  to  whom 
they  have  never  been  just  or  fair  or  even  toler- 
ant to  promote  a  propaganda  on  both  sides  of 
the  sea  which  will  preserve  for  them  their  influ- 
ence at  home  and  their  power  abroad,  to  the 
undoing  of  the  very  men  they  are  using." 

There  is  an  impression  abroad  that  the  Social 
Democratic  party  of  Germany,  usually  known 
abroad  as  the  Socialist  party,  partakes  of  at 
least  some  of  the  characteristics  of  a  great  lib- 
eral party.  This  is  far  from  being  the  case.  By 
their  acts,  if  not  by  their  express  declarations, 
they  have  shown  themselves  as  opposed  to  the 
monarchical  form  of  government  and  their  lead- 
ers are  charged  with  having  declared  themselves 
openly  in  favour  of  free  love  and  against  relig- 
ion. The  Roman  Catholic  Church  recognises  in 
Social  Democracy  its  greatest  enemy,  and  has 
made  great  efforts  to  counteract  its  advance  by 
fostering  a  sort  of  Roman  Catholic  trades-union 
for  a  religious  body  of  Socialists.  The  Social 
Democrat  in  Germany  is  almost  an  outcast.  Al- 
though one  third  of  the  members  of  the  Reichs- 

394 


LIBERALS  AND  REASONABLE  MEN 

tag  belong  to  this  party,  its  members  are' never 
called  to  hold  office  in  the  government;  and  the 
attitude  of  the  whole  of  the  governing  class,  of 
all  the  professors,  school-teachers,  priests  of 
both  Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  religions  of 
the  prosperous  middle  classes,  is  that  of  violent 
opposition  to  the  doctrines  of  Social  Democracy. 
The  world  must  entertain  no  illusion  that  the 
Social  Democratic  leaders  speak  for  Germany. 

If  the  industrial  populations  had  their  fair 
share  of  representation  in  the  Reichstag  they 
might  perhaps  even  control  that  body.  But,  as 
I  have  time  and  again  reiterated,  the  Reichstag 
has  only  the  power  of  public  opinion;  and  the 
Germany  of  to-day  is  ruled  by  officials  appointed 
from  above  downwards.  All  of  these  officials  in 
Germany  must  be  added  to  the  other  classes  that 
I  have  mentioned.  There  are  more  officials  there 
than  in  any  other  country  in  the  world.  As  they 
owe  their  very  existence  to  the  government,  they 
must  not  only  serve  that  government,  but  also 
make  the  enemies  of  that  government  their  own. 
Therefore,  they  and  the  circle  of  their  connec- 
tions are  opponents  of  the  Social  Democrats. 

All  this  shows  how  difficult  it  is  at  present  for 
the  men  of  reasonable  and  liberal  views,  who  do 
not  wish  to  declare  themselves  against  both  re- 
ligion and  morality,  to  find  a  political  refuge. 

The  Chancellor,  himself  a  liberal  at  heart,  as 
395 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

I  have  said,  has  declared  that  there  must  be 
changes  in  Germany.  It  is  perhaps  within  the 
bounds  of  probability  that  a  great  new  liberal 
party  will  be  formed  to  which  I  have  referred, 
composed  of  the  more  conservative  Social  Demo- 
crats, of  the  remains  of  the  National  Liberal  and 
Progressive  parties  and  of  the  more  liberal  of 
the  Conservatives.  The  important  question  is 
then  whether  the  Roman  Catholic  party  or  Cen- 
trum will  voluntarily  dissolve  and  its  members 
cease  to  seek  election  merely  as  representatives 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

It  is  perhaps  too  much  to  expect  that  the  Cen- 
trum party,  as  a  whole  and  as  at  present  consti- 
tuted, will  declare  for  liberalism  and  parliamen- 
tary government  and  for  a  fair  redistricting  of 
the  divisions  in  Germany  which  elect  members  to 
the  Reichstag,  but  there  are  many  wise  and  far- 
seeing  men  in  this  party;  and  its  leaders,  Dr. 
Spahn  and  Erzberger,  are  fearless  and  able  men. 

For  some  years  a  movement  has  been  going 
on  in  the  Centrum  party  looking  to  this  end. 
Many  members  believed  that  the  time  had  come 
when  it  was  no  longer  necessary  that  the  Roman 
Catholics  in  order  to  safeguard  their  religious 
liberties  continue  the  political  existence  of  the 
Centrum,  and  attempts  were  made  to  bring  about 
this  change.  It  was  decided  adversely,  however, 
by  the  Roman  Catholics.  But  the  question  is  not 

396 


LIBERALS  AND  REASONABLE  MEN 

dead.  Voluntary  dissolution  of  the  Centrum  as 
a  Roman  Catholic  party  would  immediately  bring 
about  a  creation  of  a  true  liberal  party  to  which 
all  Germans  could  belong  without  a  loss  of  social 
prestige,  without  becoming  declared  enemies  of 
the  monarchy  and  without  declaring  themselves 
against  religion  and  morality. 

At  the  Congress  which  will  meet  after  the 
war  it  will  be  easy  for  the  nations  of  the  world 
to  deal  with  the  representatives  of  a  liberal  Ger- 
many, with  representatives  of  a  government  still 
monarchical  in  form,  but  possessed  of  either  a 
constitution  like  that  of  the  United  States  or 
ruled  by  a  parliamentary  government.  I  believe 
that  the  tendency  of  German  liberalism  is  to- 
wards the  easiest  transition, — that  of  making 
the  Chancellor  and  his  ministers  responsible  to 
the  Reichstag  and  bound  to  resign  after  a  vote 
of  want  of  confidence  by  that  body. 

At  the  time  of  the  Zabern  Affair,  Scheidemann 
claimed  that  the  resignation  of  the  Chancellor 
must  logically  follow  a  vote  of  want  of  confi- 
dence; and  it  was  the  Chancellor  who  refused  to 
resign,  saying  that  he  was  responsible  to  the 
Emperor  alone.  It  requires  no  violent  change 
to  bring  about  this  establishment  of  parliamen- 
tary government,  and,  if  the  members  of  the 
Reichstag  should  be  elected  from  districts  fairly 
constituted,  the  world  would  then  be  dealing  with 

397 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

a  liberalised  Germany,  and  a  Germany  which  has 
become  liberalised  without  any  violent  change  in 
the  form  of  its  government. 

Of  course,  coincident  with  this  parliamentary 
reform,  the  vicious  circle  system  of  voting  in 
Prussia  must  end. 

This  change  to  a  government  by  a  responsible 
ministry  can  be  accomplished  under  the  consti- 
tution of  the  German  Empire  by  a  mere  majority 
vote  of  the  Reichstag  and  a  vote  in  the  Bundes- 
rat,  in  which  less  than  fourteen  votes  are  against 
the  proposed  change  in  the  constitution.  This 
means  that  the  consent  of  the  Emperor  as  Prus- 
sian King  must  be  obtained,  and  that  of  a  num- 
ber of  the  rulers  of  the  German  States. 

In  the  reasonable  liberalisation  of  Germany, 
if  it  comes,  Theodor  Wolff  and  his  father-in- 
law,  Mosse,  will  play  leading  parts.  The  great 
newspaper,  the  Tageblatt,  which  Mosse  owns 
and  Wolff  edits,  has  throughout  the  war  been  a 
beacon  light  at  once  of  reason  and  of  patriotism. 
And  other  great  newspapers  will  take  the  same 
enlightened  course. 

I  am  truly  sorry  for  Georg  Bernhard,  the  tal- 
ented editor  of  the  Vossiche  Zeitung,  who,  a  Lib- 
eral and  a  Jew,  wears  the  livery  of  Junkerdom, 
— I  am  sure  to  his  great  distaste. 

After  I  left  Germany  the  Vossiche  Zeitung 
made  the  most  ridiculous  charges  against  me, 

398 


LIBERALS  AND  REASONABLE  MEN 

.such  as  that  I  issued  American  passports  to  Brit- 
ish subjects.  The  newspaper  might  as  well  have 
solemnly  charged  that  I  sent  notes  to  the  For- 
eign Office  in  sealed  envelopes.  Having  charge 
of  British  interests,  I  could  not  issue  British 
passports  to  British  citizens  allowed  to  leave  Ger- 
many, but,  according  to  universal  custom  in  sim- 
ilar cases  and  the  express  consent  of  the  Impe- 
rial Foreign  Office,  I  gave  these  returning  Brit- 
ish, American  passports  superstamped  with  the 
words  "British  subject."  A  mare's  nest,  truly! 
The  fall  of  von  Bethmann-Hollweg  was  a  tri- 
umph of  kitchen  intrigue  and  of  Junkerism.  I 
believe  that  he  is  a  liberal  at  heart,  that  it  was 
against  his  best  judgment  that  the  ruthless  sub- 
marine war  was  resumed,  the  pledges  of  the  Sus- 
sex" Note  broken  and  Germany  involved  in  war 
with  America.  If  he  had  resigned,  rather  than 
consent  to  the  resumption  of  U-boat  war,  he 
would  have  stood  out  as  a  great  Liberal  rallying 
point  and  probably  have  returned  to  a  more  real 
power  than  he  ever  possessed.  But  half  because 
of  a  desire  to  retain  office,  half  because  of  a  mis- 
taken loyalty  to  the  Emperor,  he  remained  in 
office  at  the  sacrifice  of  his  opinions;  and  when 
he  laid  down  that  office  no  title  of  Prince  or  even 
of  Count  waited  him  as  a  parting  gift.  In  his 
retirement  he  will  read  the  lines  of  Schiller — a 
favourite  quotation  in  Germany — "Der  Mohr 

399 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

hat  seine  Schuldigkeit  gethan,  der  Mohr  kann 
gehen."  "The  Moor  has  done  his  work,  the 
Moor  can  go."  And  in  his  old  age  he  will  ex- 
claim, as  Shakespeare  makes  the  great  Chancellor 
of  Henry  the  Eighth  exclaim,  "Oh  Cromwell, 
Cromwell!  Had  I  but  served  my  God  with  half 
the  zeal  I  served  my  King,  He  would  not,  in  mine 
age,  have  left  me  naked  to  mine  enemies."  But 
this  God  is  not  the  private  War  God  of  the  Prus- 
sians with  whom  they  believe  they  have  a  gentle- 
men's working  agreement,  but  the  God  of  Christ- 
ianity, of  humanity  and  of  all  mankind. 

It  would  have  been  easier  for  Germany  to 
make  peace  with  von  Bethmann-Hollweg  at  the 
helm.  The  whole  world  knows  him  and  honours 
him  for  his  honesty. 

Helfferich  remained  as  Vice-Chancellor  and 
Minister  of  the  Interior:  a  powerful,  and  agile 
intellect, — a  man,  I  am  sure,  opposed  to  militar- 
ism. Reasonable  in  his  views,  one  can  sit  at  the 
council  table  with  him  and  arrive  at  compro- 
mises and  results,  but  his  intense  patriotism  and 
surpassing  ability  make  him  an  opponent  to  be 
feared. 

Kiihlmann  has  the  Foreign  Office.  Far  more 
wily  than  Zimmermann,  he  will  continue  to  strive 
to  embroil  us  with  Japan  and  Mexico,  but  he  will 
not  be  caught.  Second  in  command  in  London, 
he  reported  then  that  England  would  enter  the 

400 


LIBERALS  AND  REASONABLE  MEN 

war.  The  rumours  scattered  broadcast,  as  he 
took  office,  to  the  effect  that  he  was  opposed  to 
ruthless  U-boat  war  were  but  evidences  of  a 
more  skilful  hand  in  a  campaign  to  predispose 
the  world  in  his  favour  and,  therefore,  to  assist 
him  in  any  negotiations  he  might  have  on  the 
carpet.  Beware  of  the  wily  Kuhlmann ! 

Baiting  the  Chancellor  is  the  favourite  sport 
of  German  political  life.  No  sooner  does  the 
Kaiser  name  a  Chancellor  than  hundreds  of  little 
politicians,  Reichstag  members,  editors,  report- 
ers and  female  intriguers  try  to  drive  him  from 
office.  When  von  Bethmann-Hollweg  showed 
an  inclination  towards  Liberalism,  and  advo- 
cated a  juster  electoral  system  for  Prussia,  the 
Junkers,  the  military  and  the  upholders  of  the 
caste  system  joined  their  forces  to  those  of  the 
usual  intriguers;  and  it  was  only  a  question  of 
time  until  the  Chancellor's  official  head  fell  in 
the  basket. 

His  successor  is  a  Prussian  bureaucrat.  No 
further  description  is  necessary. 

Of  course  no  nation  will  permit  itself  to  be 
reformed  from  without.  The  position  of  the 
world  in  arms  with  reference  to  Germany  is 
simply  this.  It  is  impossible  to  make  peace  with 
Germany  as  at  present  constituted,  because  that 
peace  will  be  but  a  truce,  a  short  breathing  space 
before  the  German  military  autocrats  again  send 

401 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

the  sons  of  Germany  to  death  in  the  trenches 
for  the  advancement  of  the  System  and  the  per- 
sonal gloiy  and  advantage  of  stuffy  old  generals 
and  prancing  princes. 

The  world  does  not  believe  that  a  free  Ger- 
many will  needlessly  make  war,  believe  in  war 
for  war's  sake  or  take  up  the  profession  of  arms 
as  a  national  industry. 

The  choice  lies  with  the  German  people.  And 
how  admirably  has  our  great  President  shown 
that  people  that  we  war  not  with  them  but  with 
the  autocracy  which  has  led  them  into  the 
shambles  of  dishonour. 


402 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  IN  WAR 

WITH  the  declaration  of  war  the  ultimate 
power  in  Germany  was  transferred  from 
the  civil  to  the  military  authorities. 

At  five  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  Friday, 
and  immediately  after  the  declaration  of  a  State 
of  War,  the  Guard  of  the  Grenadier  Regiment 
Kaiser  Alexander,  under  the  command  of  a 
Lieutenant  with  four  drummers,  took  its  place 
before  the  monument  of  Frederick  the  Great  in 
the  middle  of  the  Unter  den  Linden.  The  drum- 
mers sounded  a  ruffle  on  their  drums  and  the 
Lieutenant  read  an  order  beginning  with  the 
words  "By  all  highest  order:  A  State  of  War  is 
proclaimed  in  Berlin  and  in  the  Province  of 
Brandenburg."  This  order  was  signed  by  Gen- 
eral von  Kessel  as  Over-Commander  of  the 
Mark  of  Brandenburg;  and  stated  that  the  com- 
plete power  was  transferred  to  him;  that  the 
civil  officials  might  remain  in  office,  but  must 
obey  the  orders  and  regulations  of  the  Over- 
Commander;  that  house-searchings  and  arrests 

403 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

by  officials  thereto  empowered  could  take  place 
at  any  time;  that  strangers  who  could  not  show 
good  reason  for  remaining  in  Berlin,  had  twenty- 
four  hours  in  which  to  leave;  that  the  sale  of 
weapons,  powder  and  explosives  to  civilians  was 
forbidden;  and  that  civilians  were  forbidden  to 
carry  weapons  without  permission  of  the  proper 
authorities. 

The  same  transfer  of  authority  took  place  in 
each  army  corps — Bezirk,  or  province  or  district 
in  Germany;  and  in  each  army  corps  district  or 
province  the  commanding  general  took  over  the 
ultimate  power.  In  Berlin  it  was  necessary  to 
create  a  new  officer,  the  Over-Commander  of  the 
Mark,  because  two  army  corps,  the  third  and 
the  arm}'  corps  of  the  guards,  had  their  head- 
quarters in  Berlin.  These  army  corps  command- 
ers were  not  at  all  bashful  about  the  use  of  the 
power  thus  transferred  to  them.  Some  of  them 
even  prescribed  the  length  of  the  dresses  to  be 
worn  by  the  women;  and  many  women,  having 
followed  the  German  sport  custom  of  wearing 
knickerbockers  in  the  winter  sports  resorts  of 
Garmisch-Partenkirchen,  the  Generalkommando, 
or  Headquarters  for  Bavaria  issued  in  January, 
1917,  the  following  order:  "The  appearance  of 
many  women  in  Garmisch-Partenkirchen  has  ex- 
cited lively  anger  and  indignation  in  the  popula- 
tion there.  This  bitterness  is  directed  particu- 

404 


THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  IN  WAR 

larly  against  certain  women,  frequently  of  ripe 
age,  who  do  not  engage  in  sports,  but  neverthe- 
less show  themselves  in  public  continually  clad 
in  knickerbockers.  It  has  even  happened  that 
women  so  dressed  have  visited  churches  during 
the  service.  Such  behaviour  is  a  cruelty  to  the 
earnest  minds  of  the  mountain  population  and, 
in  consequence,  there  are  often  many  disagree- 
able occurrences  in  the  streets.  Officials,  priests 
and  private  citizens  have  turned  to  the  General- 
kommando  with  the  request  for  help;  and  the 
Generalkommando  has,  therefore,  empowered 
the  district  officials  in  Garmisch-Partenkirchen 
to  take  energetic  measures  against  this  miscon- 
duct; if  necessary  with  the  aid  of  the  police." 

I  spent  two  days  at  Garmisch-Partenkirchen 
in  February,  1916.  Some  of  the  German  girls 
looked  very  well  in  their  "knickers,"  but  I  agree 
with  the  Generalkommando  that  the  appearance 
of  some  of  the  older  women  was  "cruelty"  not 
only  to  the  "earnest  mountain  population"  but 
to  any  observer. 

These  corps  commanders  are  apparently  re- 
sponsible direct  to  the  Emperor;  and  therefore 
much  of  the  difficulty  that  I  had  concerning  the 
treatment  of  prisoners  was  due  to  this  system, 
as  each  corps  commander  considered  himself  su- 
preme in  his  own  district  not  only  over  the  civil 

405 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

and   military    population   but    over   the   prison 
camps  within  his  jurisdiction. 

On  the  fourth  of  August,  1914,  a  number  of 
laws  were  passed,  which  had  been  evidently  pre- 
pared long  in  advance,  making  various  changes 
made  necessary  by  war,  such  as  alteration  of  the 
Coinage  Law,  the  Bank  Law,  and  the  Law  of 
Maximum  Prices.  Laws  as  to  the  high  prices 
were  made  from  time  to  time.  For  instance,  the 
law  of  the  twenty-eighth  of  October,  1914,  pro- 
vided in  detail  the  maximum  prices  for  rye  in 
different  parts  of  Germany.  The  maximum  price 
at  wholesale  per  German  ton  of  native  rye  must 
not  exceed  220  marks  in  Berlin,  236  marks  in 
Cologne,  209  marks  in  Koenigsberg,  228  marks 
in  Hamburg,  235  marks  in  Frankfort  a/M. 

The  maximum  price  for  the  German  ton  of 
native  wheat  was  set  at  forty  marks  per  ton 
higher  than  the  above  rates  for  rye.  This  maxi- 
mum price  was  made  with  reference  to  deliveries 
without  sacks  and  for  cash  payments. 

The  law  as  to  the  maximum  prices  applied  to 
all  objects  of  daily  necessity,  not  only  to  food 
and  fodder  but  to  oil,  coal  and  wood.  Of  course, 
these  maximum  prices  were  changed  from  time 
to  time,  but  I  think  I  can  safely  state  that  at 
no  time  in  the  war,  while  I  was  in  Berlin,  were 
the  simple  foods  more  expensive  than  in  New 
York. 

406 


THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  IN  WAR 

The  so-called  "war  bread,"  the  staple  food  of 
the  population,  which  was  made  soon  after  the 
commencement  of  the  war,  was  composed  par- 
tially of  rye  and  potato  flour.  It  was  not  at  all 
unpalatable,  especially  when  toasted;  and  when 
it  was  seen  that  the  war  would  not  be  as  short 
as  the  Germans  had  expected,  the  bread  cards 
were  issued.  That  is,  every  Monday  morning 
each  person  was  given  a  card  which  had  annexed 
to  it  a  number  of  little  perforated  sections  about 
the  size  of  a  quarter  of  a  postage  stamp,  each 
marked  with  twenty-five,  fifty  or  one  hundred. 
The  total  of  these  figures  constituted  the  allow- 
ance of  each  person  in  grammes  per  week.  The 
person  desiring  to  buy  bread  either  at  a  baker's 
or  in  a  restaurant  must  turn  in  these  little 
stamped  sections  for  an  amount  equivalent  to 
the  weight  of  bread  purchased.  Each  baker  was 
given  a  certain  amount  of  meal  at  the  commence- 
ment of  each  week,  and  he  had  to  account  for  this 
meal  at  the  end  of  the  week  by  turning  in  its 
equivalent  in  bread  cards. 

As  food  became  scarce,  the  card  system  was 
applied  to  meat,  potatoes,  milk,  sugar,  butter  and 
soap.  Green  vegetables  and  fruits  were  exempt 
from  the  card  system,  as  were  for  a  long  time 
chickens,  ducks,  geese,  turkeys  and  game.  Be- 
cause of  these  exemptions  the  rich  usually  man- 
aged to  live  well,  although  the  price  of  a  goose 

407 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

rose  to  ridiculous  heights.  There  was,  of  course, 
much  underground  traffic  in  cards  and  sales  of 
illicit  or  smuggled  butter,  etc.  The  police  were 
very  stern  in  their  enforcement  of  the  law  and 
the  manager  of  one  of  the  largest  hotels  in  Ber- 
lin was  taken  to  prison  because  he  had  made  the 
servants  give  him  their  allowance  of  butter, 
which  he  in  turn  sold  to  the  rich  guests  of  the 
hotel. 

No  one  over  six  years  of  age  at  the  time  I  left 
could  get  milk  without  a  doctor's  certificate.  One 
result  of  this  was  that  the  children  of  the  poor 
were  surer  of  obtaining  milk  than  before  the 
war,  as  the  women  of  the  Frauendienst  and  so- 
cial workers  saw  to  it  that  each  child  had  its 
share. 

The  third  winter  of  the  war,  owing  to  a 
breakdown  of  means  of  transportation  and  want 
of  laborers,  coal  became  very  scarce.  All  pub- 
lic places,  such  as  theatres,  picture  galleries,  mu- 
seums, and  cinematograph  shows,  were  closed  in 
Munich  for  want  of  coal.  In  Berlin  the  suffering 
was  not  as  great  but  even  the  elephants  from 
Hagenbeck's  Show  were  pressed  into  service  to 
draw  the  coal  carts  from  the  railway  stations. 

Light  was  economized.  All  the  apartment 
houses  (and  all  Berlin  lives  in  apartment  houses) 
were  closed  at  nine  o'clock.  Stores  were  forbid- 
den to  illuminate  their  show  windows  and  all 

408 


THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  IN  WAR 

theatres  were  closed  at  ten.  Only  every  other 
street  electric  light  was  lit;  of  the  three  lights  in 
each  lamp,  only  one. 

As  more  and  more  men  were  called  to  the 
front,  women  were  employed  in  unusual  work. 
The  new  underground  road  in  Berlin  is  being 
built  largely  by  woman  labour.  This  is  not  so 
difficult  a  matter  in  Berlin  as  in  New  York,  be- 
cause Berlin  is  built  upon  a  bed  of  sand  and  the 
difficulties  of  rock  excavation  do  not  exist. 
Women  are  employed  on  the  railroads,  working 
with  pickaxes  on  the  road-bed.  Women  drive 
the  great  yellow  post  carts  of  Berlin.  There 
were  women  guards  on  the  underground  road, 
women  conductors  on  the  tramways  and  women 
even  become  motor  men  on  the  tramcars.  Banks, 
insurance  companies  and  other  large  business  in- 
stitutions were  filled  with  women  workers  who  in- 
vaded the  sacred  precincts  of  many  military  and 
governmental  offices. 

A  curious  development  of  the  hate  of  all  things 
foreign  was  the  hunt  led  by  the  Police  President 
of  Berlin,  von  Jagow  (a  cousin  of  the  Foreign 
Minister),  for  foreign  words.  Von  Jagow  and 
his  fellow  cranks  decided  that  all  \vords  of  for- 
eign origin  must  be  expunged  from  the  German 
language.  The  title  of  the  Hotel  Bristol  on  the 
Unter  den  Linden  disappeared.  The  Hotel 
Westminster  on  the  same  street  became  Linden- 

409 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

hof.  There  is  a  large  hotel  called  "The  Cumber- 
land/' with  a  pastry  department  over  which  there 
was  a  sign,  the  French  word,  Confisserie.  The 
management  was  compelled  to  take  this  sign 
down,  but  the  hotel  was  allowed  to  retain  the 
name  of  Cumberland,  because  the  father-in-law 
of  the  Kaiser's  only  daughter  is  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland.  The  word  "chauffeur"  was  elim- 
inated, and  there  were  many  discussions  as  to 
what  should  be  substituted.  Many  declared  for 
Kraftwagenfuhrer  or  "power  wagon  driver." 
But  finally  the  word  was  Germanised  as  "Schauf- 
foer."  Prussians  took  down  the  sign,  Confek- 
tion,  but  the  climax  came  when  the  General  in 
command  of  the  town  of  Breslau  wrote  a  confec- 
tioner telling  him  to  stop  the  use  of  the  word 
"bonbon"  in  selling  his  candy.  The  confectioner, 
with  a  sense  of  humour  and  a  nerve  unusual  in 
Germany,  wrote  back  to  the  General  that  he  would 
gladly  discontinue  the  use  of  the  word  "bonbon" 
when  the  General  ceased  to  call  himself  "Gen- 
eral," and  called  the  attention  of  this  high  mili- 
tary authority  to  the  fact  that  "General"  was  as 
much  a  French  word  as  "bonbon." 

Unusual  means  were  adopted  in  order  to  get 
all  the  gold  coins  in  the  country  into  the  Im- 
perial Bank.  There  were  signs  in  every  surface 
and  underground  car  which  read,  "Whoever 
keeps  back  a  gold  coin  injures  the  Fatherland." 

410 


THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  IN  WAR 

And  if  a  soldier  presented  to  his  superiors  a 
twenty  mark  gold  piece,  he  received  in  return 
twenty  marks  in  paper  money  and  two  days  leave 
of  absence.  In  like  manner  a  school  boy  who 
turned  in  ten  marks  in  gold  received  ten  marks 
in  paper  and  was  given  a  half  holiday.  Cine- 
matograph shows  gave  these  patrons  who  paid  in 
gold  an  extra  ticket,  good  for  another  day.  An 
American  woman  residing  at  Berlin  was  awak- 
ened one  morning  at  eight  o'clock  by  two  police 
detectives  who  told  her  that  they  had  heard  that 
she  had  some  gold  coins  in  her  possession,  and 
that  if  she  did  not  turn  them  in  for  paper  money 
they  would  wreck  her  apartment  in  their  search 
for  them.  She,  therefore,  gave  them  the  gold 
which  I  afterwards  succeeded  in  getting  the  Ger- 
man Government  to  return  to  her.  Later,  the 
export  of  gold  was  forbidden,  and  even  travel- 
lers arriving  with  gold  were  compelled  to  give 
it  up  in  return  for  paper  money. 

While,  of  course,  I  cannot  ascertain  the  exact 
amounts,  I  found,  nevertheless,  that  great  quan- 
tities of  food  and  other  supplies  came  into  Ger- 
many from  Holland  and  the  Scandinavian  coun- 
tries, particularly  from  Sweden.  Now  that  we 
are  in  the  war  we  should  take  strong  measures 
and  cut  off  exports  to  these  countries  which  ex- 
port food,  raw  material,  etc.  to  Germany.  Swe- 
den is  particularly  active  in  this  traffic,  but  I  un- 

411 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

derstand  that  sulphur  pyrites  are  sent  from  Nor- 
way, and  sulphuric  acid  made  therefrom  is  an 
absolute  essential  to  the  manufacture  of  muni- 
tions of  war. 

Potash,  which  is  found  as  a  mineral  only  in 
Germany  and  Austria,  was  used  in  exchange  of 
commodities  with  Sweden  and  in  this  way  much 
copper,  lard,  etc.  reached  Germany. 
;  Early  in  the  summer  of  1915,  the  first  demon- 
stration took  place  in  Berlin.  About  five  hun- 
dred women  collected  in  front  of  the  Reichstag 
building.  They  were  promptly  suppressed  by 
the  police  and  no  newspaper  printed  an  account 
of  the  occurrence.  These  women  were  rather 
vague  in  their  demands.  They  called  von  Bue- 
low  an  old  fat-head  for  his  failure  in  Italy  and 
complained  that  the  whipped  cream  was  not  so 
good  as  before  the  war.  There  was  some  talk 
of  high  prices  for  food,  and  the  women  all  said 
that  they  wanted  their  men  back  from  the 
trenches. 

Early  summer  brought  also  a  number  of 
cranks  to  Berlin.  Miss  Jane  Addams  and  her 
fellow  suffragists,  after  holding  a  convention  in 
Holland,  moved  on  Berlin.  I  succeeded  in  get- 
ting both  the  Chancellor  and  von  Jagow  to  con- 
sent to  receive  them,  a  meeting  to  which  they 
looked  forward  with  unconcealed  perturbation. 

412 


THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  IN  WAR 

However,  one  of  them  seems  to  have  impressed 
Miss  Addams,  for,  as  I  write  this,  I  read  in  the 
papers  that  she  is  complaining  that  we  should  not 
have  gone  to  war  because  we  thereby  risk  hurt- 
ing somebody's  feelings. 

On  July  twenty-seventh,  1915,  I  reported  that 
I  had  learned  that  the  Germans  were  picking 
out  the  Revolutionists  and  Liberals  from  the 
many  Russian  prisoners  of  war,  furnishing  them 
with  money  and  false  passports  and  papers,  and 
sending  them  back  to  Russia  to  stir  up  a  revolu- 
tion. 

•  ••*•*• 

A  German  friend  of  mine  told  me  that  a  friend 
of  his  who  manufactured  field  glasses  had  re- 
ceived a  large  order  from  the  Bulgarian  Govern- 
ment. This  manufacturer  went  to  the  Foreign 
Office  and  asked  whether  he  should  deliver  the 
goods.  He  was  told  not  only  to  deliver  them 
but  to  do  it  as  quickly  as  possible.  By  learning 
of  this  I  was  able  to  predict  long  in  advance  the 
entry  of  Bulgaria  on  the  side  of  the  Central 
Powers. 

Even  a  year  after  the  commencement  of  the 
war  there  were  reasonable  people  in  Germany. 
I  met  Ballin,  head  of  the  great  Hamburg  Ameri- 
can Line,  on  August  ninth.  I  said  to  him,  "When 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

are  you  going  to  stop  this  crazy  fighting?"  The 
next  day  Ballin  called  on  me  and  said  that  the 
sensible  people  of  Germany  wanted  peace  and 
that  without  annexation.  He  told  me  that  every 
one  was  afraid  to  talk  peace,  that  each  country 
thought  it  a  sign  of  weakness,  and  that  he  had 
advised  the  Chancellor  to  put  a  statement  in  an 
official  paper  to  say  that  Germany  fought  only 
to  defend  herself  and  was  ready  to  make  an  hon- 
ourable peace.  He  told  me  that  the  Emperor  at 
that  time  was  against  the  annexation  of  Bel- 
gium. 

In  calculating  the  great  war  debt  built  up  by 
Germany,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  German 
municipalities  and  other  political  districts  have 
incurred  large  debts  for  war  purposes,  such  as 
extra  relief  given  to  the  wives  and  children  of 
soldiers. 

•  •••••• 

In  November,  1915,  there  were  food  disturb- 
ances and  a  serious  agitation  against  a  contin- 
uance of  the  war;  and,  in  Leipzig,  a  Socialist 
paper  was  suppressed. 

The  greatest  efforts  were  made  at  all  times 
to  get  in  gold;  and  some  time  before  I  left  Ger- 
many an  advertisement  was  published  in  the 
newspapers  requesting  Germans  to  give  up  their 

414 


THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  IN  WAR 

jewelry  for  the  Fatherland.  Many  did  so: 
among  them,  I  believe,  the  Empress  and  other 
royalties. 

•  ••••** 

In  December,  1915,  a  prominent  banker  in 
Berlin  said  to  me  that  the  Germans  were  sick  of 
the  war;  that  the  Krupps  and  other  big  indus- 
tries were  making  great  sums  of  money  and 
were  prolonging  the  war  by  insisting  upon  the 
annexation  of  Belgium;  and  that  the  Junkers 
were  also  in  favour  of  the  continuance  of  the 
war  because  of  the  fact  that  they  were  getting 
four  or  five  times  the  money  for  their  products 
while  their  work  was  being  done  by  prisoners. 
He  said  that  the  Kaufleute  (merchant  middle 
class)  wrill  have  to  pay  the  cost  of  the  war  and 
that  the  Junkers  will  not  be  taxed. 

In  December,  butter  became  very  scarce  and 
the  women  waiting  in  long  lines  before  the  shops 
often  rushed  the  shops.  In  this  month  many 
copper  roofs  were  removed  from  buildings  in 
Berlin.  I  was  told  by  a  friend  in  the  Foreign 
Office  that  the  notorious  von  Rintelen  was  sent 
to  America  to  buy  up  the  entire  product  of  the 
Dupont  powder  factories,  and  that  he  exceeded 
his  authority  if  he  did  anything  else. 

In  December,  on  the  night  of  the  day  of  the 
peace  interpellation  in  the  Reichstag  a  call  was 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

issued  by  placards  for  a  meeting  on  the  Unter 
den  Linden.  I  went  out  on  the  streets  during  the 
afternoon  and  found  that  the  police  had  so  care- 
fully divided  the  city  into  districts  that  it  was 
impossible  for  a  crowd  of  any  size  to  gather  on 
the  Unter  den  Linden.  There  was  quite  a  row  at 
the  session  in  the  Reichstag.  Scheidemann,  the 
Socialist,  made  a  speech  very  moderate  in  tone; 
but  he  was  answered  by  the  Chancellor  and  then 
an  endeavour  was  made  to  close  the  debate.  The 
Socialists  made  such  a  noise,  however,  that  the 
majority  gave  way  and  another  prominent  So- 
cialist, Landsberger,  wras  allowed  to  speak  for 
the  Socialists.  He  also  made  a  reasonable  speech 
in  the  course  of  which  he  said  that  even  Social- 
ists would  not  allow  Alsace-Lorraine  to  go  back 
to  France.  He  made  use  of  a  rather  good  phrase, 
saying  that  the  "Dis-United  States  of  Europe 
were  making  war  to  make  a  place  for  the  United 
States  of  America." 

The  banks  sent  out  circulars  to  all  holders  of 
safe  deposit  boxes,  asking  them  to  disclose  the 
contents.  This  was  part  of  the  campaign  to  get 
in  hoarded  gold. 

In  January,  1916,  we  had  many  visitors.  S.  S. 
McClure,  Hermann  Bernstein,  Inez  Milhol- 
land  Boissevain — all  of  the  Ford  Peace  Ship — ap- 

416 


THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  IN  WAR 

peared  in  Berlin.     I  introduced  Mrs.  Boissevain 
to  Zimmermann  who  admired  her  extremely. 

•  •••••• 

In  January,  1916,  I  visited  Munich  and  from 
there  a  Bavarian  officer  prison  camp  and  the 
prison  camp  for  private  soldiers,  both  at  Ingol- 
stadt.  I  also  conferred  with  Archdeacon  Nies 
of  the  American  Episcopal  Church  who  carried 
on  a  much  needed  work  in  visiting  the  prison 
camps  in  Bavaria. 

The  American  Colony  in  Munich  maintained 
with  the  help  of  friends  in  America,  a  Red  Cross 
hospital  under  the  able  charge  of  Dr.  Jung,  a 
Washington  doctor,  and  his  wife.  The  nursing 
was  done  by  American  and  German  girls.  The 
American  Colony  at  Munich  also  fed  a  number 
of  school  children  every  day.  I  regret  to  say, 
however,  that  many  of  the  Americans  in  Munich 
were  loud  in  their  abuse  of  President  Wilson 
and  their  native  country. 

In  March,  1916,  I  was  sounded  on  the  question 
of  Germany's  sending  an  unofficial  envoy,  like 
Colonel  House,  to  America  to  talk  informally 
to  the  President  and  prominent  people.  I  was 
told  that  Solf  would  probably  be  named. 

In  1916,  the  importation  of  many  articles  of 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

luxury  into  Germany  was  forbidden.  This  move 
was  naturally  made  in  order  to  keep  money  in 
the  country. 

•  ••••*• 

A  Dane  who  had  a  quantity  of  manganese  in 
Brazil  sold  it  to  a  Philadelphia  firm  for  delivery 
to  the  United  States  Steel  Company.  The  Ger- 
man Government  in  some  way  learned  of  this 
and  the  Dane  was  arrested  and  put  in  jail.  His 
Minister  had  great  difficulty  in  getting  him  out. 

Liebknecht,  in  April  of  1916,  made  matters 
lively  at  the  Reichstag  sessions.  During  the 
Chancellor's  speech,  Liebknecht  interrupted  him 
and  said  that  the  Germans  were  not  free;  next 
he  denied  that  the  Germans  had  not  wished  war; 
and,  another  time,  he  called  attention  to  the 
attempts  of  the  Germans  to  induce  the  Moham- 
medan and  Irish  prisoners  of  war  to  desert  to 
the  German  side.  Liebknecht  finally  enraged  the 
government  supporters  by  calling  out  that  the 
subscription  to  the  loan  was  a  swindle. 

After  the  Sussex  settlement  I  think  that  the 
Germans  wished  to  inaugurate  an  era  of  better 
feeling  between  Germany  and  the  United  States. 
At  any  rate,  and  in  answer  to  many  anonymous 
attacks  made  against  me,  the  North  German  Ga- 
zette, the  official  newspaper,  published  a  sort  of 

418 


THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  IN  WAR 

certificate  from  the  government  to  the  effect  that 
I  was  a  good  boy  and  that  the  rumours  of  my 
bitter  hostility  to  Germany  were  unfounded. 

In  May,  1916,  Wertheim,  head  of  the  great 
department  store  in  Berlin,  told  me  that  they  had 
more  business  than  in  peace  times. 

Early  in  June  I  had  two  long  talks  with  Prince 
von  Buelow.  He  speaks  English  well  and  is  sus- 
pected by  his  enemies  of  having  been  polishing 
it  up  lately  in  order  to  make  ready  for  possible 
peace  conferences.  He  is  a  man  of  a  more  active 
brain  than  the  present  Chancellor,  and  is  very 
restless  and  anxious  in  some  way  to  break  into 
the  present  political  situation. 

In  June,  the  anonymous  attacks  on  the  Chan- 
cellor by  pamphlet  and  otherwise,  incensed  him 
to  such  a  degree  that  he  made  an  open  answer 
in  the  Reichstag  and  had  rather  the  best  of  the 
situation.  Many  anonymous  lies  and  rumours 
were  flying  about  Berlin  at  this  period,  and  even 
Helfferich  had  to  deny  publicly  the  anonymous 
charges  that  he  had  been  anonymously  attack- 
ing the  Chancellor. 

In  July,  the  committee  called  the  National 
Committee  for  an  Honourable  Peace  was  formed 

4IQ 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

with  Prince  Wedel  at  its  head.  Most  of  the  peo- 
ple in  this  League  were  friends  of  the  Chancel- 
lor, and  one  of  the  three  real  heads  was  the  edi- 
tor of  the  Frankfurter  Zeitung,  the  Chancel- 
lor's organ.  It  was  planned  that  fifty  speakers 
from  this  committee  would  begin  to  speak  all 
over  Germany  on  August  first,  but  when  they 
began  to  speak  their  views  were  so  dissimilar 
and  the  speeches  of  most  of  them  so  ridiculous 
that  the  movement  failed. 

In  August,  I  spent  two  Saturdays  and  Sun- 
days at  Heringsdorf,  a  summer  resort  on  the 
Baltic.  Before  going  there  I  had  to  get  special 
permission  from  the  military  authorities  through 
the  Foreign  Office,  as  foreigners  are  not  allowed 
to  reside  on  the  coast  of  Germany.  Regulations 
that  all  windows  must  be  darkened  at  night  and 
no  lights  shown  which  could  be  seen  from  the 
sea  were  strictly  enforced  by  the  authorities. 

There  are  three  bathing  places.  In  each  of 
them  the  bath  houses,  etc.  surround  three  sides 
of  a  square,  the  sea  forming  the  fourth  side. 
Bathing  is  allowed  only  on  this  fourth  side  for 
a  space  of  sixty-five  yards  long.  One  of  these 
bathing  places  is  for  women  and  one  for  men, 
and  the  third  is  the  so-called  Familienbad  (fam- 
ily bath)  where  mixed  bathing-  is  allowed.  Ger- 
man women  are  very  sensible  in  the  matter  of 

420 


THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  IN  WAR 

their  bathing  costumes  and  do  not  wear  the  ex- 
traordinary creations  seen  in  America.  They 
wear  bathing  sandals  but  no  stockings,  and,  as 
most  of  them  have  fine  figures  but  dress  badly, 
they  appear  at  their  best  at  Heringsdorf.  Both 
sea  and  air  seemed  somewhat  cold  for  bathing. 
On  account  of  their  sensible  dress,  most  of  the 
German  women  are  expert  swimmers. 

I  noticed  one  very  handsome  blonde  girl  who 
sat  on  her  bathing  mantle  exciting  the  admira- 
tion of  the  beach  because  of  her  fine  figure.  She 
suddenly  dived  into  the  pockets  of  the  bathing 
mantle  and  produced  an  enormous  black  bread 
sandwich  which  she  proceeded  to  consume  quite 
unconsciously,  after  which  she  swam  out  to  sea. 
No  healthy  German  can  remain  long  separated 
from  food;  and  I  noticed  in  the  prospectus  of 
the  different  boarding-houses  at  Heringsdorf 
that  patrons  were  offered,  in  addition  to  about 
four  meals  or  more  a  day,  an  extra  sandwich  to 
take  to  the  beach  to  be  consumed  during  the 
bathing  hour. 

There  is  a  beautiful  little  English  church  in 
Berlin  which  was  especially  favoured  by  the 
Kaiser's  mother  during  her  life.  Because  of 
this,  the  Kaiser  permitted  this  church  to  remain 
open,  and  the  services  were  continued  during  the 
war.  The  pastor,  Rev.  Mr.  Williams,  obtained 

421 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

permission  to  visit  the  British  prisoners,  and 
most  devotedly  travelled  from  one  prison  camp 
to  another.    Both  he  and  his  sister,  whose  charit- 
able work  for  the  British  deserves  mention,  were 
at  one  time  thrown  into  jail,  charged  with  spy- 
ing. 

•          •••••• 

I  at  first  attended  the  hybrid  American  church, 
but  when,  in  1915,  I  think,  the  committee  hired 
a  German  woman  preacher  I  ceased  to  attend. 
The  American,  the  Reverend  Dr.  Grosser,  who 
was  in  charge  when  I  arrived  in  Berlin  left,  to 
my  everlasting  regret,  in  the  spring  before  the 
war. 

•  ••*••• 

Poor  Creelman,  the  celebrated  newspaper  cor- 
respondent, died  in  Berlin.  We  got  him  in  to  a 
good  hospital  and  some  one  from  the  Embassy 
visited  him  every  day. 

The  funeral  services  were  conducted  in  the 
American  Church  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Dickie,  long  a 
resident  of  Berlin,  whose  wife  had  presented  the 
library  to  the  American  church.  The  Foreign 
Office  sent  Herr  Horstmann  as  its  representa- 
tive. 

•  •*•»•• 

While  to-day  all  royalties  and  public  men  pose 
for  the  movies,  Czar  Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria  and 
his  family  are  probably  the  first  royalties  to  act 

422 


THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  IN  WAR 

in  a  cinematograph.  In  1916,  there  was  released 
in  Berlin  a  play  in  which  Czar  Ferdinand  of 
Bulgaria,  his  wife  and  two  daughters  by  a  former 
wife  appeared,  acting  as  Bulgarian  royalties  in 
the  development  of  the  plot. 

•  •••••• 

The  difference  between  von  Jagow  and  Zim- 
mermann  was  that  von  Jagow  had  lived  abroad* 
had  met  people  from  all  countries  and  knew  that 
there  was  much  to  learn  about  the  psychology 
of  the  inhabitants  of  countries  other  than  Ger- 
many. Zimmermann,  in  the  early  part  of  his  ca- 
reer, had  been  consul  at  Shanghai;  and,  on  his 
way  back,  had  passed  through  America,  spend- 
ing two  days  in  San  Francisco  and  three  in  New 
York.  He  seemed  to  think  that  this  transcon- 
tinental trip  had  given  him  an  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  American  character.  Von  Jagow,  on 
the  other  hand,  almost  as  soon  as  war  began, 
spent  many  hours  talking  to  me  about  America 
and  borrowed  from  me  books  and  novels  on  that 
country.  The  novel  in  which  he  took  the  greatest 
interest  was  "Turmoil,"  by  Booth  Tarkington. 

*•»»••* 

I  think  there  must  have  been  a  period  quite 
recently  when  the  German  Government  tried  to 
imbue  the  people  with  a  greater  degree  of  fright- 
fulness,  because  all  of  us  in  visiting  camps,  etc. 

423 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

observed  that  the  landsturm  men  or  older  sol- 
diers were  much  more  merciful  than  the  younger 
ones. 

•  *•••*• 

Alexander  Cochran,  a  New  York  yachtsman, 
volunteered  to  become  a  courier  between  the 
London  Embassy  and  ours.  On  his  first  trip, 
although  he  had  two  passports  (his  regular 
passport  and  a  special  courier's  passport),  he 
was  arrested  and  compelled  to  spend  the  night 
on  the  floor  of  the  guard-room  at  the  frontier 
town  of  Bentheim.  This  ended  his  aspirations 
to  be  a  courier.  He  is  now  a  commander  in  the 
British  Navy,  having  joined  it  with  his  large 
steam  yacht,  the  Warrior  some  time  before  the 
United  States  entered  the  war.  In  the  piping 
times  of  peace  he  had  been  the  guest  of  the  Em- 
peror at  Kiel. 

A  British  prisoner,  who  escaped  from  Ruh- 
leben,  was  caught  in  a  curious  manner.  Prison- 
ers in  Ruhleben  received  bread  from  outside,  as 
I  have  explained  in  the  chapter  on  prisoners  of 
war.  This  bread  is  white,  something  unknown 
in  Germany  since  the  war.  The  escaped  pris- 
oner took  with  him  some  sandwiches  made  of 
the  bread  he  had  received  in  Ruhleben  and  most 
incautiously  ate  one  of  these  sandwiches  in  a 
railway  station.  He  was  immediately  sur- 

424 


THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  IN  WAR 

rounded  by  a  crowd  of  Germans  anxious  to 
know  where  he  had  obtained  the  white  bread, 
and,  in  this  way,  was  detected  and  returned  to 
prison. 

»•••••• 

On  our  way  out  in  September,  1916,  we  were 
given  a  large  dinner  in  Copenhagen  by  our 
skilful  minister  there,  the  Hon.  Maurice  F. 
Egan,  who  has  devoted  many  years  of  his  life 
to  the  task  of  adding  the  three  beautiful  Danish 
islands  to  the  dominions  of  the  United  States. 
He  is  an  able  diplomat,  very  popular  in  Copen- 
hagen, where  he  is  dean  of  the  diplomatic  corps. 
At  this  dinner  we  met  Countess  Hegerman-Lind- 
encron,  whose  interesting  books,  "The  Sunny 
Side  of  Diplomatic  Life"  and  "The  Courts  of 
Memory,"  have  had  a  large  circulation  in  Amer- 
ica. In  Copenhagen,  too,  both  on  the  way  out 
and  in,  we  lunched  with  Count  Rantzau-Brock- 
edorff,  then  German  Minister  there.  Count  Rant- 
zau  is  skilful  and  wily,  and  not  at  all  military  in 
his  instincts ;  and,  I  should  say,  far  more  inclined 
to  arrive  at  a  reasonable  compromise  than  the 
average  German  diplomat.  He  is  a  charming  In- 
ternational, with  none  of  the  rough  points  and 
aggressive  manners  which  characterise  so  many 
Prussian  officials. 

•  •  •  •  •  •  • 

In  judging  the  German  people,  we  must  re- 

425 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

member  that,  while  they  have  made  great  prog- 
ress in  the  last  forty  years  in  commerce  and 
chemistry,  the  very  little  liberty  they  possess  is 
a  plant  of  very  recent  growth.  About  the  year 
1780,  Frederick  the  Great  having  sent  some 
money  to  restore  the  bui  ned  city  of  Greiffenberg, 
in  Silesia,  the  magistrates  of  that  town  called 
upon  him  to  thank  him.  They  kneeled  and  their 
spokesman  said,  "We  render  unto  your  Majesty 
in  the  name  of  the  inhabitants  of  Greiffenberg, 
our  humble  thanks  for  the  most  gracious  gift 
which  your  Majesty  deigned  to  bestow  in  aid 
and  to  assist  us  in  rebuilding  our  homes. 

"The  gratitude  of  such  dust  as  we,  is,  as  we 
are  aware,  of  no  moment  or  value  to  you.  We 
shall,  however,  implore  God  to  grant  your  Maj- 
esty His  divine  favours  in  return  for  your  royal 
bounty." 

Too  many  Germans,  to-day,  feel  that  they  are 
mere  dust  before  the  almost  countless  royalties 
of  the  German  Empire.  And  these  royalties  are 
too  prone  to  feel  that  the  kingdoms,  dukedoms 
and  principalities  of  Germany  and  their  inhabi- 
tants are  their  private  property.  The  Princes 
of  Nassau  and  Anspach  and  Hesse,  at  the  time 
of  our  Revolution,  sold  their  unfortunate  sub- 
jects to  the  British  Government  to  be  exported 
to  fight  the  Americans.  Our  American  soil 
covers  the  bones  of  many  a  poor  German  peasant 

426 


THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  IN  WAR 

who  gave  up  his  life  in  a  war  from  which  he 
gained  nothing. 

•  •••*•• 

When  Frederick  the  Great,  the  model  and  ex- 
emplar of  all  German  royalties,  died  in  1786,  he 
disposed  of  the  Kingdom  of  Prussia  in  his  will 
as  if  it  had  been  one  of  his  horses.  "I  bequeath 
unto  my  dear  nephew,  Frederick  William,  as 
unto  my  immediate  successor,  the  Kingdom  of 
Prussia,  the  provinces,  towns,  palaces,  forts, 
fortresses,  all  ammunition  and  arsenals,  all  lands 
mine  by  inheritance  or  right  of  conquest,  the 
crown  jewels,  gold  and  silver  service  of  plate  in 
Berlin,  country  houses,  collections  of  coins,  pic- 
ture galleries,  gardens,  and  so  forth."  Contrast 
this  will  with  the  utterances  of  Washington  and 
Hamilton  made  at  the  same  time ! 

In  the  Grand  Duchies  of  Mecklenburg,  serf- 
dom was  not  abolished  until  1819. 

The  spies  and  the  influencers  of  American  cor- 
respondents made  their  headquarters  at  a  large 
Berlin  hotel.  A  sketch  of  their  activities  is  given 
by  de  Beaufort  in  his  book,  "Behind  the  German 
Veil." 

Among  the  American  correspondents  in  Berlin 
during  the  war  great  credit  should  be  given  to 
Carl  W.  Ackerman  and  Seymour  B.  Conger,  cor- 

427 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

respondents  of  the  United  and  Associated  Presses 
respectively,  who  at  all  times  and  in  spite  of  their 
surroundings  and  in  the  face  of  real  difficulties 
preserved  their  Americanism  unimpaired  and  re- 
fused to  succumb  to  the  alluring  temptations  held 
out  to  them.  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  the 
other  correspondents  were  not  loyal,  but  the  pro- 
Germanism  of  many  of  them  unfortunately  gave 
the  Imperial  Foreign  Office  and  the  great  general 
staff  a  wrong  impression  of  Americans.  It  is  the 
splendid  patriotism  under  fire  of  Ackerman  and 
Conger  that  deserves  special  mention. 


428 


CHAPTER  XX 


I  WAS  credited  by  the  Germans  with  having 
hoodwinked  and  jollied  the  Foreign   Office 
and   the   Government   into   refraining   for  two 
years  from  using  illegally  their  most  effective 
weapon. 

This,  of  course,  is  not  so.  I  always  told  the 
Foreign  Office  the  plain  simple  truth  and  the 
event  showed  that  I  correctly  predicted  the  atti- 
tude of  America. 

Our  American  national  game,  poker,  has 
given  us  abroad  an  unfair  reputation.  We  are 
always  supposed  to  be  bluffing.  A  book  was  pub- 
lished in  Germany  about  the  President  called, 
"President  Bluff." 

I  only  regret  that  those  high  in  authority  in 
Germany  should  have  preferred  to  listen  to  pro- 
German  correspondents  who  posed  as  amateur 
super-Ambassadors  rather  than  to  the  authorised 
representatives  of  America.  I  left  Germany  with 
a  clear  conscience  and  the  knowledge  that  I  had 
done  everything  possible  to  keep  the  peace, 

429 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

An  Ambassador,  of  course,  does  not  determine 
the  policy  of  his  own  country.  One  of  his  prin- 
cipal duties,  if  not  the  principal  one,  is  to  keep 
his  own  country  informed — to  know  beforehand 
what  the  country  to  which  he  is  accredited  will 
do,  and  I  think  that  I  managed  to  give  the  State 
Department  advance  information  of  the  moves 
of  the  rulers  of  Germany. 

I  had  the  support  of  a  loyal  and  devoted  staff 
of  competent  secretaries  and  assistants,  and  both 
Secretaries  Bryan  and  Lansing  were  most  kind 
in  the  backing  given  by  their  very  ably  organ- 
ised department. 

I  sent  Secretary  Lansing  a  confidential  letter 
every  week  and,  of  course,  received  most  valu- 
able hints  from  him.  Secretary  Lansing  was 
very  successful  in  his  tactful  handling  of  the 
American  Ambassadors  abroad  and  in  getting 
them  to  work  together  as  cheerful  members  of 
the  same  team. 

When  I  returned  to  America,  after  living  for 
two  and  a  half  years  in  the  centre  of  this  world 
calamity,  everything  seemed  petty  and  small.  I 
was  surprised  that  people  could  still  seek  little 
advantages,  still  be  actuated  by  little  jealousies 
and  revenges.  Freed  from  the  round  of  daily 
work  I  felt  for  the  first  time  the  utter  horror 
and  uselessness  of  all  the  misery  these  Prussian 

430 


LAST 

military  autocrats  had  brought  upon  the  world; 
and  what  a  reckoning  there  will  be  in  Germany 
some  day  when  the  plain  people  realise  the  truth, 
when  they  learn  what  base  motives  actuated 
their  rulers  in  condemning  a  whole  generation 
of  the  earth  to  war  and  death! 

Is  it  not  a  shame  that  the  world  should  have 
been  so  disturbed;  that  peaceful  men  are  com- 
pelled to  lie  out  in  the  mud  and  filth  in  the  depth 
of  raw  winter,  shot  at  and  stormed  at  and  shelled, 
waiting  for  a  chance  to  murder  some  other  in- 
offensive fellow  creature  ?  Why  must  the  people 
in  old  Poland  die  of  hunger,  not  finding  dogs 
enough  to  eat  in  the  streets  of  Lemberg?  The 
long  lines  of  broken  peasants  in  Serbia  and  in 
Roumania;  the  population  of  Belgium  and 
Northern  France  torn  from  their  homes  to  work 
as  slaves  for  the  Germans;  the  poor  prisoners 
of  war  starving  in  their  huts  or  working  in  fac- 
tories and  mines;  the  cries  of  the  old  and  the  chil- 
dren, wounded  by  bombs  from  Zeppelins;  the 
wails  of  the  mothers  for  their  sons;  the  very 
rustling  of  the  air  as  the  souls  of  the  ten  million 
dead  sweep  to  another  world, — why  must  all 
these  horrors  come  upon  a  fair  green  earth, 
where  we  believed  that  love  and  help  and  friend- 
ship, genius  and  science  and  commerce,  religion 
and  civilisation,  once  ruled? 


MY  FOUR  YEARS  IN  GERMANY 

It  is  because  in  the  dark,  cold  Northern  plains 
of  Germany  there  exists  an  autocracy,  deceiv- 
ing a  great  people,  poisoning  their  minds  from 
one  generation  to  another  and  preaching  the  vir- 
tue and  necessity  of  war;  and  until  that  autoc- 
racy is  either  wiped  out  or  made  powerless, 
there  can  be  no  peace  on  earth. 

The  golden  dream  of  conquest  was  almost  ac- 
complished. A  little  more  advance,  a  few  more 
wagon  loads  of  ammunition,  and  there  would 
liave  been  no  battle  of  the  Marne,  no  Joffre,  a 
modern  Martel,  to  hammer  back  the  invading 
hordes  of  barbarism. 

I  have  always  stated  that  Germany  is  possessed 
yet  of  immense  military  power;  and,  to  win,  the 
nations  opposed  to  Germany  must  learn  to  think 
in  a  military  way.  The  mere  entrance,  even  of  a 
great  nation  like  our  own,  into  the  war,  means 
nothing  in  a  military  way  unless  backed  by  mili- 
tary power. 

And  there  must  be  no  German  peace.  The 
old  regime,  left  in  control  of  Germany,  of  Bul- 
garia, of  Turkey,  would  only  seek  a  favourable 
moment  to  renew  the  war,  to  strive  again  for 
the  mastery  of  the  world. 

Fortunately  America  bars  the  way, — America 
led  by  a  fighting  President  who  will  allow  no 
compromise  with  brutal  autocracy. 
THE  END 
432 


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FAC-SIMILE  OF  SECRETARY  OF  STATE  ZIMMERMANN  S  RE- 
QUEST TO  AMBASSADOR  GERARD  TO  CALL,  IX  ORDER  TO 
RECEIVE  THE  ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  RUTHLESS  SUBMARINE 
WARFARE  AGAINST  THE  ALLIES 

439 


Kduffahrtelschiffe  beim  Aasbruch 
der  Fetndseligkelten  fthden  auf 
die  betdersettigen  Kauffahrtel- 
schlffe  und  deren  Ladungen  An- 
wendung. 

Die  bezelchneten  Schtffe 
diirfen  sum  Auslaufen  aits  dem 
Hafen  nur  gezwungen  werden,  wenn 
Ihnen  gieichteltlg  eln.  von  den 
samt lichen  felndlichen  Seemach- 
ten  als  verblndllch  anerkannier 
Passlerschetn  nach  etnem  Hafen 
des  etgenen  Oder  elnes  verbun- 
deten  Landes  Oder  nach  elnem 
anderen  Hafen  des  Aufenthalts- 
landes  angeboten  wlrd. 

Artlkel  8. 

Die  Bestintmungen  des  arlt- 
ten  Kapitels  des  elf  ten  Haager 
Abkomsnens  uber  gewtsse  Beschrcn- 
kungen     in  der  Ausubung  des 
Beuterechts   im  Seekrieg  flnden 
auf  den  Kapitan,   die  Offlziere 
und  tile  Mitglieder  der  Mann- 
schaft  der  tat  Art  ike  1  7  be- 
zeichneten  soioie  der  im  Laufe 

eines 


at  outbreak  of  hostilities  shall 
apply  to  the  merchant  vessels  of 
either  party  and  their  cargo. 


The  aforesaid  ships  may  .rot 
be  forced  to  leave  port  unless 
at  the  same  time  they  be  given 
a  pass  recognised  as  binding 
by  all  the  enemy  seapowers  to  a 
home  port  or  a  port  of  an  allied 
country  or  to  another  port  of 
the  country  in  which  the  ship 
happens  to  be. 


Article  8. 

The  regulations  ,of,  chapter 
3  of  the  eleventh  Hague  Conven- 
tion relative  to  certain  restric- 
tions in  the  exercise  of  the 
right  of  capture  in  maritime  war 
shall  apply  to  the  captains, of- 
ficers and  members  of  the  crews 
of  merchant  ships  specified  In 
article  7  and  of  such  merchant 

ships 


440 


tinea  etwaigen  Krieges  loeggenom- 
menen  Kauffahrtetschlffe  Anwen- 
dung. 

Art  Ike  1  9. 

Dleae  Vtrattindlgung  er- 
atrecki  alch  ouch  ouf  die  Ko- 
lonlen  und  aonatlgen  ouaw&rti- 
gen  Btaltxungen  der  bet  den  Tei- 
le. 

Berlin,   den         Fsbruar  1917. 


ships  that  may  be  captuned  In 
the  course  of  a  possible  war. 

Article  9. 

This  agreement  shall  apply 
also  to  the  colonies  and  other 
foreign  possessions  of  either 
party. 


Berlin,  February 


1917. 


THE  REMODELLED  DRAFT  OF  THE  TREATY  OF  I/QQ  BETWEEN 
THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  PRUSSIA,  WHICH  AMBASSADOR 
GERARD  WAS  ASKED  TO  SIGX  WHEN  LEAVING  GERMANY 
AFTER  DIPLOMATIC  RELATIONS  HAD  BEEN  SEVERED 

441 


Die  0ang0  Berichterstattung  fiber  don  letzten 
Luf  tang  riff     seitena  der  Snglonder  hat  sicht   vie  gewohnt* 
daraxf  beavhrantot,   die  ttbllche  Anxahl  van  Uenachanlsben 
als  etnfiga  Opfer  4«a  Angrtffa  anxwffben  und  Ale  materiel- 
len  Sch&den  als  v&llig  bala-iglos  htnxvsvellen       Alia  Be- 
nQhjnaen*  ditrch  wsttgehende  Abaperr^j^gynuidnahnen  and 
belung  d0r  B$.richteratattwng  Aie  tata&chllch 
Schdden  &er  Gffentlichftett  vorxvwnthalten>   aind 
s«9  ifal  erfnlglos  geblteben       SerstOrungeni   iate  ate  nanent- 
lich  <ler  lotst&  Angriff  *»  Qefolge  gehabt  hat,   lassen  st?h 
-Ale  Paver  elien  nicnt  verachlet&rn.     Der  gonne  Utofang 
-4*r-dGi**i3--9»f&n9-&er  Sch&Aen  18Bt  sich  xwar  nosh  nlcht 
ffntfemtestem  Qberaahen*  dock  gem&gt  dfaa*   waa  "biahsr 
gewordon  istf   vvllaitf*   M*  *i*  erHennen     das  d*r 
13.  /24.  X.  alle  btahertgsn  an  Vtrkisng 
hat* 


Sa  wwr&en  erfolgratcn  bevtorfen. 
•/•   Die  Londoner  ffafenanlctgen  (Ate  aogonannt&n_DQCk$i 


r/n  den  ^g»»tfa4fg  Dacha  brsnnte  atn  groQsr 
pen,  tier  xim  fell  Munition  '3rtf  andarea  Kriegamaterial  ant- 
vollstandig 


Jn  den  Lgnggn  :.^ggj|g  warden  3te  Kai&auern  und 

auf  weitesWocKisn  nieaergfflegt*  Hehr&rs  Schif 
fe  wurd&n  getroffsm*  g-js»  ?ell  v&lltg 


Jn  Sen  7i^toriar  BocKs  garidt  &in  gro8sr  Sam- 
wollopetcher  in  Brand'  uind  wuras  vdllig 


Die  in  der  N8h&  tier  Z?oc*a  galagenm 

&ie  St     Gsarga  Strsvt  wul  die  Lenan  street 
schwer  geltttcnf 


flar  mtt  ff$3eh&t*en  versehens  fowsr  n-ebat 

die  Ghcinc&ry  Lane* 

die  LluarpQl  Street*  \    «T/s  ditaten  StraBen  sind 

dio  yorgctCft  Street*     \   re-lche  H&aer  serstdrt  teorden- 

die  Biskopsyat6»  (  JTMZ?  Tell  game 


die 

•Tm 


Di0  South  Wsstem  £$nfs  brstrmte  bis*  ttxf  di 
nisd&r,     Srhnblicha  Sunmen  an  Gold  wd  Wertpapteren 
sollen  vemicht&t  tyordsn  aein     Ifnt-or  den  fru 
nosh  tayelang  r^ch  Qelit  unit  Papisrwi  gaaucht       Awh 
--          tar  London  BanJe  \aiAr<l(» 


l  twrtis  des  C+zbtiude  der 
Post  besvndnrz  schwer  be 


Per  Vhtorgrund*   und  Zisenbabnbetrt&b  Avreh  ton 
don  nu£te     infolge  yon  SsratOrmgen  tatlweiae  eijtgespe>2lt 


442 


vororte 


* 

te  Araehal  stnd  achwere  B&seM&tQvngen 

Sin  feil  gans  n»it&r  Uaachin&n  and  finriehtw 
gen  ist  vernicht«t  wordan 


tterie  Kit  Scheinw&rfernt  von  der  die 

Luftschiffe  hsftiges  Peu&r  b&Kommen  hatten*   wurde  nit  Box- 
ben  belegt  imd  ZVSK  Schweigen  gsbraeht*     Di&  Scheinw@rfor 
*rlQ3Ch0n  xu&  Tail  mmlttelbar  noc'n  den  erstetn  Ba»b8nvtf>r~ 


Bet 


3  ) 

d&r  gut  en 
nisse 


l&  Puwp-   und  Kfoftstation  wurde  bevtorfen 
'  vurden  gut& 


4  )  Croud  or 
£$  wur 
•zehrere  arose  Brand*  beobachtet 


S-) 


(Jn  tfordsn  Londons 


Eier  wwde  sine  b&aond^ra  stctrke  Sc 
batterie  ausgiebig  Kit  Bomis&fi  bslegt  te%3  XAhlreteke 
be&bachtet-     Kaeh  sine®  mitt&n  in  der  Battdrte  gelegenen 
freffer  srlosch  sofort  sine  R&ihe  von  Sch@inw9rfem 

6.  )  Jn  ffssttytsi  ana  fig  3  thai*  warden  groBs  FabriK-und 
beivorfen      Ea  Konnte  sehr  guter  Srfolg 


7  ) 


a  nrjrde  sine  Batter  is  "beworfent   dor&n.  Fei*0r 
naeh  wentgen  $o&bsnuf&rf<m  nertdich  achwacher 


ganten 
Aus  alien 


f  Bis  L&ftachiffi 

griffs  aitBeror^entltCff  risfttg  tnzsehojasm- 
•\Londons  hag  el  t &  ea  Scbrapnslls 

\zeuge  b&m-^t^n  sich?   di&  Ab&ehr  tier  'Lnft'schtff&  ZTA  vnter- 

ist&1?sen»   ohne  judtyeden  Sr-folg       Sahllose  Sc?tei?$yQrf8r  toe~ 

^leuchteten  ana  alien  fftatttteilen  die  Luft*chiff3  taghell . 

Sins  der  Luftschiffe  nate*  3tah  die  Seitf   die  Scheinwerftr 

XTJ,  s&hl&b*     Ss  s&hlte  Uber  8$      Die  Snglander  warden  sich 

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A  FAC-SIMILE  REPRODUCTION  OF  A  MULTIGRAPH  SET  OF 
INSTRUCTIONS  SENT  OUT  BY  THE  GERMAN  PRESS  BUREAU 
TO  THE  NEWSPAPERS  FOR  THE  PURPOSE  OF  ENABLING  THEM 
TO  WRITE  UP  THE  LATEST  ZEPPELIN  RAID  ON  LONDON.  THE 
INSTRUCTIONS  WARN  THEM  THAT  THEIR  ACCOUNTS  MUST 
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WRITTEN  INDEPENDENTLY 


443 


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444 


orte  in  Me  Sett 

1914  t)on  ernj!  Sijfauer 


£>ie  Jpftfte  beg  SKemertragS  ift  fik  Me  ftriegertoaifen  fceflimmt   * 

?Ol(ltt  Unb  roarb  tnir  mcf)t  gegefcen,  nutiufcfjtagtn, 

©eroefjr  unb  ©abet  in  (Wrmenber  #anb, 
©ei  mit  wgfitmf,  em  fampftnb  SBort  ju  fagett. 
D  mmm  and)  biefe  ©a6e  an,  tnetn  ?anb! 


Sum  ©rteit 


ed  gift  in  biefem  ^riege  nic^t  nur  ©rofmac^f  unb  93orma$f,  nic^t  nut 
©ebi^te  unb  ^of^enftationen,  nic^t  nur  ^)anbc(  unb  @iebdunc};  c^  gift 
55c|lanb  unb  £auer  be^  etnigen  ^olfe^  SBafyrung  unb  ^Birfung  ber  beuffc^en 
ftultur,  bie  ebcn  in  cine  neue  ^fyafe  »ollei:  ^ricbfraft  unb  guile  roiid)!  liefer 
^rieg  »erf(drt  ftd)  mit  ©cij^c,  unb  njieberum:  bie  ©eijler  tvajfnen  fi'c^,  3)er  ©eifl 
ber  ^ol^eit,  au^  grower  ©efcjncfyte  ^er,  in  gro^e  ©efcf)ic^te  fyn,  biaft  ubeu  ben 
O^aflfen,  uber  ben  ^Baffen  biefer  Beit  llnb  ijl  ^eute  aud;  ba^  2Bort  gering  ^inter 
ber  Q:at,  ju  /eglic^er  Seit  if]  ba^  ^Bort  ficrruc^t,  ba^  nic^t  fc^)(agenbe^  $er&  unb 
greifenbe  ^)dnbe  ^f'  fa  Wem  @inn  wollen  biefe  SBorte  niit  ^)anb  anlegen. 


gegen 


fdjicrf  un^  Svuffe  unb 

tuiOcr  @cf)ufj  unt)  ©fof  urn  ©tof! 
2Bir  licben  ft'c 
5Bir  f>a|Tcn  ft'c 
SBic  fcfjugcn  28cicfyfe(  unb 
?H3ir  tyafcen  nur  cincn 
SSir  (icbcn  toctcinf,  <vir  ^alTcn  ucrcinf, 
5SSir  ^akn  nur  cinen  einjigcn 


Sen  i^>r  aUe  wtjif,  ben  i^r  aUc  wift, 
€r  ft^t  gcbudt  ^intcr  bcr  gtaucn  gtuf, 
SSoU  2Reib,  tooU  2But,  DoU  ©c^taue,  tooU  £i(l, 
Surd)  Staffer  gctrcnnf,  bie  ftnb  bicfer  a(^  S5(uf. 
5Bir  woUcn  fretcn  in  cin  ©crid)(, 
©nen  ©cfywur  ju  fc^tvoren,  ©eftc^t  in 


FIRST  PAGE  OF  A  PAMPHLET  FOR  PROPAGANDA  PURPOSES,  IN 
WHICH  WIDE  PUBLICITY  WAS  GIVEN  TO  LISSAUER's  FAMOUS 
"HYMN  OF  HATE" 

445 


2lm  'JWJittluorf),  belt  4.  $cbrtwv  b.  $,,  imrb  bet  S^rcn  Katfevlidjc 
unb  Klomglirfjcii  SDlajeftatctt  tut  SBeijjen  Saale  bc3  ftoniglidjcn  Sd;loffe3  fyicrfdDft  c 
i^nH  ftattfinbcii,  511  iucld;cm  bic  (Sinlabungen  burd;  bic  §offoiiriere  uitb  burdj  Garten  erfolgcn. 

Sic  SiYincn  crfd;cincn  in  [angcn  au-Sgcfdjiuttcncit  SUcibcrn  (fchtc  Dicrccftgctt  3(iii 
frfjuittc  mib  fcinc  lniti]cii  3(eriud),  mit  fyeKcn  ©Cac^^anbf^u^en,  bie  ^cvrcn  Dom  3'^ 
in  (55nla  mit  lucifjcn  Uiiterffeibem  (Jtnte^ofen,  3d;uf;c  unb  Stviintpfc),  bic  .s^cvvcn  ^om  3)Jiliti 
tm  6of[ial(--2(n5itgo,  mit  Dfbcnobanb. 

Sicjcnigcn  §cvvcn,  iuelc^e-fsur  Sdtrcijung  cincr  Uniform  nidjt  Dercdjtigt  (inb  nnb  bcmna 
friifya  im  fd;UKn'3cn  fy'&d.  unb  lucijjcv  Slrnloattc  cvfd;icncn,  fatten  nnnntcf;r  bic  ^cfngni-j,  b< 
iun\]cJ4u-icDcHc  .\)off(cib  311  tiagcn. 

Jitr  bic  2tllerl)6c(?ften  unb  .£>od>ften  §crrfd;aftcn  ift  bie  2tnfaf;rt  rjCQCit  8V3  lt^ 
oom  iiuftgartcn  (;cr  bttrd;  ^orfnf  "Sir.  5  Dei  bcr  3BcnbchvcpVc  »»o  btc  3$crtniit]tt(tnti)  i 
Slur  f  itr  ft  euji  miner. 

Sic  DOcrftcn  $o\=,  bic  D0er=^)of=,  btc  SSi3c=Dbcv=.s)of=  unb  bic  ^of^Gtjargcn,  bie  ©encro 
iHbjittantcit,  bic  Ocncrak  unb  Slbmirafc  u  la  suite  unb  bic  ^'{K^Slbjntantcn  Seiner  SUajcfta 
ber  aJZiniflcr  be-3  ^onigficficn  Jpaufcy  unb  bcr  (M;ctmc  ^abinctt-oiat,  foiuic  bic  ©efolgc  b 
xHl[cvI;od)|"tcn  unb  bcr  A*iod;ftcn  §errfd;aften  nc(;mcn  bicfctbc  9(nfat;rt  unb  iH'rfamineln  ftdj  n 
j^'/.i  Ufjc  im  JUint^^inuner;  bic  Saincn  livtcn  in  bie  lunficrte  Watcric  cin. 

2lUe  anbcren  (5}afte  finb  511  8  Ufyt  cingcfabcn. 

ocfafivt  ift: 

fiir  bic  giirften,  bic  ;Diiiglicber  bc-5  biplomattfcljen  Gorp»  unb  bic  Gijc((enjen=2)ami 
unb  .socrvcn  Uont  ^nftgarten  KT  bnrd;  ^orfrtf  "21r.  5  bet  bcr  2Benbdtrc|>p 

fitr  bic  Samcn  —  foiucit  fie  nid;t  311  ben  I'orftcfycnb  bejctc^ncten  (yaften  gefyorcu  - 
unb  bie  fie  Ocgleitcnbcn  ^erren  lunn  Snftgartcn  f'cv  im  ^ortaf  ^Ir.  4,  an  b 
Sfjeatertre^e,  i^on  iyo  bcr  Gintritt  burd;  ben  ilvtpttc(=3aal  gcnonuncn  iuirb,  in 

fiir  bie  anbcren  £>crrcn  t^om  Ql'oH  unb  3)U[ttar  t>on  bcr  Sdi(of;frct6cit  T;er  but 
"^orfaf  ^lr.  3  Dei  ber  gegcniiDcr  bcr  aiiac^e  belegcnen  A^oUcntrc^pc  (Gintn 
bnrd;  btc  ^ilber=G5a!erie). 

cvfrtiitmhuti]  ift: 

fiir  bic  ^'viitjCii  unb  -,prin3efftnnen  attv  foutn'rancn  ncufiirftltdicit  .fjanfcr 
famtltdjc  Samcn,  bic  G(;ef»  ber  fiirftltcDcn  unb  ef;cmal'3  rctd^Sftanbifc^ 
griiflid;cn  .s^iinfer,  bic  Siplomaten,  bic  (Si^cKcn^cn  unb  bic  tan;cnbcn  .Ocrn 
im  2x>ctf;cn  3aalc; 

bic   anberen   eingetabencn  .^crrcn    in   bcr  iLU'if5cn  =  3aaI=   unb  in  bcr  i^ilbo 
Oalerie. 

Tic  iiorf)  uorjiiftcllciibcii  Tiiiucii  ucrfnmiiicdi  firf)  im  Jdtc-dau  bcr  i'iIbcr  =  WnIcric  (friiljcr 
Stoiiigiiiiiciinciuari)). 


*'i  (C-e  inii-ti  in  iii'.uiiii  cvfudjt,  tut  t!cl)iitticvititiii«fitllc  J»tc  Alifrtgc  iiiitqcliciib  nn  l»r 
(Obcv-i'iofinnird)rtllrtntt  luiiutiicu  InlTcit  MI  luollcit. 


AN    EXCEI.LKNT    EXAMPLE   OF    TEUTONIC    EFFICIENCY. 

MINUTE    REGULATIONS    IN    REGARD    TO    PRESENTATION    AT    COURT 

446 


tint  lO3/4  ttfjt  toivb  etn  Souper  ftattftnben  unb  jiuav 
im  SDiarincfaal  unb  im  ft5nigittnen*3immcr: 

fur  tie  Snierljodjften  unb  $ocljftett  £evvfdjaften, 

unb  fitv  btejcnigen  ©ingelabenen,  bcnen  e3  befonbeva  angefagt  iucvben  iutvb; 

in  bev  ©diiuavjeu  Slbtcr-^anuncr  unb  ber  9toten  ©anunct  = 
fiiv  bie  £>°fftaaten; 

im  ©arbe§  bu  ©ori)5  =  @aale  unb  ben  auliegenben  Slanmen: 
fiiv  bie  tanjcnbcn  Saineit  unb  ^evrcn  unb 
a((e  ein^ernen  jiingcrcn  Jpevvcn; 

(3ugang  cine  Svcjjpe  ticfcv  liOor  bie  JBeijk  S 

im  Svaunfd;iuetgtfd;en  @,aal,  in  bev  35vaun]d;iueigtfd;en  ©alevte,  in  bev  33vaun  = 
fdiiueigtfdjcn  Kainmev,  in  ben  $\lmigin  =  (E:Hfafretlj-'$aminevn  unb  =9Bo^nung 
unb  tin  (SIifa&etl;*@aaI: 

fiiv  bie  aujievbent  ©tngelabencn. 
@nbe  be§  gefte§  gcgeit  12  V2  Uf)r. 

S)ie  Slbfn^rt  ift  na($  l^a^f  tn-t  bev  aBenbeUvej^  obcv  tin  'g'otfaf  ^Tt.  4  bei  bev 

bev  9Jtd;tung  nad;  bent  Suftgarten,  obcv  t>on  bev  33i(bev  =  @afevte  au§  tifccv  bie 
'g'ortaf  ^Tr.  3  nad;  bev  Sdi(o^fveif;eit. 


Devlin,  ben  31.  ^anuav  1914. 
Dev 


t>oit 


Sic  5111-  2tt)I)oInn3  fommcnbcu  3«njjcn  biirfen  nur  Uom  «d)lo^In(5  I)cr  burd)  bie  ^ovtnlc  I  iiitb  II 

in  bie  Siljlufjtji'fi'  ciufrt()vcn. 


447 


*»  Wet  «nf41«j<fcile  W  bit  ni«t«  «e[*«ftfft.B«  t««  .Brtlhur  So!oT.«n|eijeti'  onoigrteii. 


Deutf^(on00  Ic&tra  Botf  an  Bu&lanb. 


Slorf)  elnmal,  rje  bit  SBaffen  fprtrfjtn. 
flibi  Deut|d)I(in6  bem  ru|(i|d)cn  Stitfje  ou| 

furjc  Srift.  fid)  )u  bffiimrn  unb  Me 
irohenbe  ftnloftropf)e  ab^uajenbrn.  (Jinf 
|'o(b«n  tr|d)lentne  Eonberousonbt  6er 
5!orbbeulfd)tn  SlUatmcinen  geiluiin  bringt 
loljcnbt  b.albamtlid)r,  fur  bit  Scurlti. 
lung  btr  oustubliiflidjtn  Sage  Ijodjniid). 
li.-c  TOilltilung: 

nodiDnt     kit    »uf    cltttn  ISuitfdi  >c« 


c  -D!ol,ilm«dia 


(unnoorfcel 

ruf* 

iiidien  armee  un»  SHorine  ceiti'rl  worsen 
ill.  Uni  Die  Weaieruna.  Zeiner  "JMit  ii»i  »t  .< 
fluiittS  lit  me  in  SI.  «<ter>tgrn 
luiiien  loiien.  boh  Sit  b  t  a  I  i  rt|  t  Wo. 
dirinadiuno  in  fl  »  »  i  i  rtl  I  II  «  1 1 . 

reilunfltn   <in[ttl(l    un»    Utriittt 

!  t  r  e  6  o  I  I  u  n  n  im  Tiollt  tints  lifutfd). 
tiiiiiitiltn  (Irienes  oerirfiltt  wotStn. 


Die 


Des  Sonflifls. 


I  t?tt. 


iii««     M«innf,rr:tn     :!!  u  (  1  ,1  n 


!   »0 


Hm  2(1.  3u!i  8i"8  ''« 

tclcgratmn 


bit  Sidjfthfit    tm   ^r.nttn  be*  fiartbel  at* 

bcj.  Dor   nCtm   ir.'nla:   bfr   Ciilroidhma  bet 


ftitti    btr    "iititlutti 


Iptirohtlen  CTille-i  7entid|lniiM.  S:r '.luncn 

3ut  grflflrung  Des 

fitiegsjuflnnties. 


1:  >:>  c  tl     ;   r  l  :l  *     ll  •;  5   (1  c  i  A  a  j  I   u  It  fl  t  5  I  n 

Bedobang  Des 


t!.;-itn.  r-i  tici  »iiii)  in.- 
Scr  »li"»tffiii  :l»i  »«« 
IttlA  ffinj  Unwiint  Slllo. 


Sine   (f  jtru  •  aiiioiflnbctt  tr-J   ,,?<crlincr  Sofnl-'Jln^rii 
in  iiiijcn-ii  icimtlirficn  (^{V 


lucrbcn  nntf)   Inic   liar   in  6clicbii)i;t   S 
nrii  an  jebmnmm  ai:«i)cni-Dfn. 


A    BERLIN    EXTRA.       GKRMANY    DISCLAIMS    RESPONSIBILITY    FOR    THE    WAR 


448 


Date  Due 


TW 


^E£ 


Library  Bureau  Cat.  No.  1137 


^ufAlleAoclistenJefelil  /Jhrer  Kaiserli 

beehrtsichderunterzeichneteOber-Hof-und  Haus-Marschall 
-  &ea 


zu  dem  am  Montag.den  1.  Juni  1914  um   11    Uhr  Vormittags  im  Neuen  Palais  bei  Potsdam 

stattfmdenden  Stiftungsfest  des  Lehr-lnfanterie-Bataillons  und  zu  der  um  1  Uhr 

darauf  folgenden  Fruhstiicks-Tafel  im  Muschelsaale  des  Neuen  Palais 

einzuladen 


Ueber  Aniug  pp.  siehe  beifolgende  Ansage. 


// 


I.VV1TATION    TO    THE    FESTIVAL    IN*    THE    NEW    PALACE    AT    POTSDAM,    JUNE    FIIIST,    1914 


.   K.   J.uHQhenzollcm'',   den        2?, Juni  19 14. 


Seine  liajest&t  der  Kaiaer  und  KSnlg  laaaen 

Sxcallane  ai'm  Segeln  an  Bord  S.J/»J.»&leteorn 

elnladen.    ginaohiffung  am    Di  ens  tag     den  30.Juni        8     Ohr» 
Tons*  an  der  Boje. 


Ada tral» 
An 

Seine  Xxeellana 

den  Sotachafter  der  Vereinigten  Btaaten  von  Amerika 
Harm  Joaea  V.  G«rard. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A    001  445919    2 


^ufAllerhochstenJiefehl  Jeinerjliajestat  des  Kaisers  und  l\oni£s 

beehrtsichderunterzeichneteOber-Hof-und  Haus-Marschall 


zur 


an  Bord  S.M.Y^Hohenzollern11 


einzu  laden. 


Anzug: 
f.  ZV<  ,<•«.,« 


// 


VITATIOX    TO    DINE    OX    THE    KAISER'S    YACHT,   "lIOHEXZOLLERX,"  AT    KIEL 


bar  3Priit|  tinb  bb  Urati  Jrinpssin  If  etnritfy  nun 

rfV••     •    Q-    0  P00P  V 

x-noiett-  i^n-  Jvon-tciCtone-n-  (yonto-td  -x/u-  Jv 

xy 

am  Sonntag,  den  28.  Juni  von,  VV,bis  X   -Uhr. 


Anzug  pp.: 


I 


